THE BOOK OF HAGGAI

So the Persian king instructed the Jews to build a Temple in Jerusalem. However, that Temple was never completed during Cyrus’ reign. But this decree becomes very important later, when the enemies of the Jews try to stop the Temple from being built.

It is quite clear that the return to Jerusalem did not include any people from the northern House of Israel, who had gone into captivity to the Assyrians more than a century earlier. Ezra 1:5 shows that the only ones who were involved in this return to Jerusalem were people from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as well as priests of the line of Aaron and Levites.

Ezra 2:64-65 shows that the total number of people who returned were 42,360 Jews and Benjamites and Levites, plus another 7,337 servants and maids and singers, for a total number of 49,697 people. Many of those 7,337 servants and maids (i.e. slaves in our terminology) were very likely non-Israelites (i.e. not of the tribes of Judah or Benjamin or Levi), whom the Jews had acquired while living in Babylon. In time those non-Israelite servants and maids and their descendants all became a part of the Jewish people.

In the 7th month (i.e. the month for Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles) Joshua and Zerubbabel built an altar for burnt offerings (Ezra 3:2). But the foundation for the Temple had not yet been laid.

From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the LORD. But the foundation of the Temple of the LORD was not yet laid. (Ezra 3:6)

So they hired laborers to bring cedar wood from Lebanon, and to start building. This was all paid for with state funds made available by King Cyrus (verse 7).

When the Samaritans came and wanted to help in building the Temple, Zerubbabel and Joshua firmly rejected them (Ezra 4:3), because the Samaritans practiced a syncretic pagan religion, which also incorporated certain things they had learned from the pagan priest from the House of Israel, who had been sent to them. (See 2 Kings 17:24-34 for the details about this.)

The Jews made clear that they wanted nothing to do with the Samaritans. So then the Samaritans became extremely hostile towards the Jews, and they made it very difficult for the Jews to work on building the Temple (Ezra 4:4-5). Progress on building was very slow.

Once the next Persian king was ruling, these enemies wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes, king of Persia (verse 7). The false accusations they presented in that letter had their desired effect, and King Artaxerxes gave a written commandment “... to cause these men to cease, and that this city not be built until ...” (Verse 21). The result was that work on the Temple was stopped completely.

Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. (Ezra 4:24)

More than 10 years passed, during which no work was done on the Temple. Then, after more than 10 years, we come to the next two verses.

Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them. (Ezra 5:1-2)

This brings us up to the time of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. So now let’s look at the Book of Haggai.

AN OVERVIEW

Altogether the 12 Minor Prophets cover 3 distinct periods of time. The 1st 7 books (Hosea - Nahum) cover the Assyrian period in history. The 1st book starts with Assyria at the height of its power, and the 7th book concludes with the destruction of Assyria in the 2nd Woe. Books 8 and 9 cover the Babylonian period of history, culmination in the destruction of the whole Babylonian system in the 9th book.

There was an approximately 100-year gap between the Book of Zephaniah and the Book of Haggai. The last 3 books (Haggai - Malachi) cover the Restoration period. The name “Haggai” means “my Feast”. And these last 3 books each conclude with either a Feast or a Holy Day.

The Book of Haggai ends with a reference to Jesus Christ’s 2nd coming, which is represented by the Holy Day of Trumpets. We’ll see this when we examine this book shortly. The Book of Zechariah ends with a discussion of the Feast of Tabernacles. And the Book of Malachi concludes with a reference to “smiting the earth with a curse”, a reference to the lake of fire, which represents the very last event associated with the Last Great Day.

[We might note that in this sequence the removal of Satan (i.e. the Day of Atonement) is omitted. That is because the removal of Satan is not actually a part of restoring anything; it is only the removal of a monumental problem, rather than an active part of some form of restoration. So Atonement does not feature in the Restoration books.]

God is going to “restore” life on earth to the way it should have been, had we human beings not sinned against God. And that restoration process starts with the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God here on earth. That message is represented by the Book of Haggai.

The Book of Haggai consists of 4 short messages to different groups of people. These messages go as follows:

1st message = Haggai 1:1-15 = to Zerubbabel and Joshua.

2nd message = Haggai 2:1-9 = to Zerubbabel and Joshua and the people.

3rd message = Haggai 2:10-19 = to the priests.

4th message = Haggai 2:20-23 = to Zerubbabel.

So Zerubbabel is included in 3 of those messages, and Joshua is also included in 3 of those messages, since Joshua was the High Priest.

THE FIRST MESSAGE

Haggai 1:1 tells us that God gave Haggai a message for the governor Zerubbabel and for Joshua the High Priest. The actual message starts with verse 2.

Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built. (Haggai 1:2)

This spells out the problem. People had stopped building the Temple more than 10 years earlier, because of fear regarding the commandment of King Artaxerxes. And as long as they did not build, so long the surrounding nations basically left them alone.

So God now stirs up the Prophet Haggai to motivate the Jews to get back to building the Temple. And this message to start building again goes to the two top leaders at that time, the political leader Zerubbabel and the High Priest Joshua.

God’s message through Haggai was:

Is it time for you, O you, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lies waste? (Haggai 1:4)

“Cieled houses” refers to “covered houses, perhaps even with some interior paneling”. The point God makes is: so far you have looked only after yourselves. You’ve all built fine houses for yourselves. But you have not built God’s Temple, which was the main project for which you came back to Jerusalem in the first place.

A lot of us in God’s Church today are also like this!

God calls us into His Church to fulfill certain responsibilities, and we say: I keep God’s Sabbath and the Feasts and Holy Days, I tithe and I don’t eat unclean foods. So I’m okay. There is nothing else I’m supposed to do, right? And we don’t understand that the Jews at Haggai’s time were also doing all these things which we do, but they weren’t doing the job for which God had brought them back. And if we today are only doing “all these things”, then we too aren’t doing the job for which God called us into His Church.

Today the members of God’s Church are “the Temple of God”. We today have also been called “to build the Temple”.

Don’t you know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

Back at Haggai’s time the Jews did “all these things”, but they didn’t do the job of building the Temple. Today we in God’s Church also do “all these things”, but we easily neglect to “built the Temple we have been called to build”.

The way for us to build the Temple is not with wood and stones. For us the instruction to build the Temple involves changing our minds and our attitudes, and willingly seeking to please God by the way we deal with other people, and by the way we live our lives, and by the priorities that motive our actions day-in and day-out.

We are to “let our light shine before men”, by the good works we do. See Matthew 5:16. Understand that Jesus Christ’s reference to “good works” here is not a reference to keeping God’s Sabbath and Holy Days. With “good works” Jesus Christ was referring to the things we do in addition to keeping God’s laws.

We need to understand that people can keep God’s laws without actually having any “good works” in their lives.

It is “the good works”, the things we do in addition to keeping God’s laws, that “build and mold us into a part of the Temple of God. Without those good works in addition to our keeping of all of God’s laws we are still only unprofitable servants because we have only done “those things that are commanded us”. See Luke 17:10. And let’s keep in mind that “unprofitable servants” will be thrown “into outer darkness” (see Matthew 25:30).

Look at it this way:

When all we do are the things we are commanded to do, then all we are doing is breaking even! There is no loss, but there is also no profit. We are only standing in place, and we are not getting ahead. With breaking even there is no growth. The only way to be profitable, the only way to get ahead, is to do more than is required of us. The unprofitable servant who hid the one talent that had been entrusted to him “broke even”, didn’t he? See Matthew 25:18,30. He had kept all of God’s laws, but that’s all he had done. And breaking even made him unprofitable.

We today should be able to identify with those Jews in Jerusalem at the time of Haggai. They kept God’s laws, but lacked the motivation to also build God’s Temple. We also keep God’s laws, but we also need to let our lights shine, in our contacts and our interactions with other people.

Tithing and not eating unclean foods are essential for us, but these things don’t shine any lights for other people to see. And in most cases keeping God’s Sabbath and the Holy Days also don’t shine any lights for other people to see. People aren’t really watching us when we eat, or what we do with our money, or how we spend our Saturdays. They don’t see us when we sit in church services.

“The lights” other people can see are what we say when we have contact with other people. The “lights” they see are the things we do when we are in their company. The “lights” people can see are how we work and how we play during the week. It is our conduct when we are not in church that becomes “the light” for other people to see.

Let’s continue with God’s instructions through the Prophet Haggai.

Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. (Haggai 1:5)

This is something we don’t do very often, is it? Do we consider our own ways? Specifically, when something does not turn out as we had hoped it would turn out, do we in that situation “consider our ways”? Or do we blame someone else or something else for why things didn’t turn out right?

What God is telling us through the Prophet Haggai is that whenever things turn out badly for us, then the first thing we always need to do is to ask ourselves: have I done something that caused this unpleasant result? Have I neglected to do something I should have done? Is God punishing me for doing or not doing something?

That is what “consider your ways” means.

God then spelled out what the Jews back then were to look at.

You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but you have not enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a pocket with holes. (Haggai 1:6)

God tells them: things have not turned out well for you, have they? You work hard, but you barely have enough to eat and drink, just to get by. You don’t even have enough clothing to really keep warm. And the wages you earn are eaten up by inflation, so that you struggle just to have enough to survive.

This state of affairs is the result when you don’t do the job for which I brought you back to Jerusalem. God is saying: when you don’t put Me first in your lives, then I will not bless you. So the more you focus your priorities on looking after your own needs, the more you are going to have to struggle. And then God repeats His instruction:

Thus says the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. (Haggai 1:7)

Ask yourselves: why are our lives a struggle? Why are we not being blessed by God? What are we doing wrong?

God then spells things out in detail.

You looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because of My house that is waste, and you run every man unto his own house. (Haggai 1:9)

Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. (Hag 1:10)

And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands. (Haggai 1:11)

Things being difficult, and life being a constant struggle was not just the way life goes. It wasn’t just “normal”. Life was difficult because God made it difficult for them! God was in fact punishing them for putting their own needs ahead of building the Temple.

Now here is the point for us to learn:

Until God pointed this out to the people through the Prophet Haggai, it never even occurred to the people that God was punishing them for neglecting to build the Temple.

They did not associate adverse weather conditions with God somehow wanting to get their attention. The droughts were just droughts, something we should expect every few years, right? It’s part of the natural cycle, right? No, wrong!

God has throughout history repeatedly used droughts to chastise us for our conduct. Droughts and the resulting famines are mentioned many times in both the Old and the New Testament. In most cases they were punishments from God for our wrong way of living.

In this regard God has not changed. Today God still uses droughts and famines to punish us for our wrong ways of living, to punish us for destroying this planet Earth. But we usually don’t see God’s hand in such situations. Instead, we look for “cycles” in droughts.

As already mentioned, we have been called to become a part of “the Temple of God”. But to become a part of “the Temple of God” requires that we do more than just keep God’s commandments. If we are only “breaking even”, then nothing is being built. It is absolutely essential that we do more than we are commanded to do.

So here is God’s instruction to those Jews back then to remedy this situation.

Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says the LORD. (Haggai 1:8)

The solution to their struggles for survival was for them to do the work of God! Build the house for God first, and then worry about your own needs. And if you do that, then God will also bless your efforts at providing for yourselves.

God delivered this message through the Prophet Haggai. And the people responded with eagerness to obey God’s instructions. The people then worked on the house for God.

Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD. (Haggai 1:12)

God saw this response from all the people, and so God told the people:

Then spoke Haggai the LORD’S messenger in the LORD’S message unto the people, saying, I am with you, says the LORD. (Haggai 1:13)

The cause for the droughts and famines had been addressed, and so God was then going to bless them.

And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, (Haggai 1:14)

While the people were not directly addressed in the opening of this 1st message, they obviously were involved. By addressing this 1st message only to Zerubbabel and to Joshua, God was indicating that, in response to this message through Haggai, these two leaders needed to stir up and motivate the whole population. And this they then did.

THE SECOND MESSAGE

So now the 2nd message is also directed at the people themselves. On the 7th Day of the Feast of Tabernacles that year God gave Haggai another message. This time the people are also addressed.

Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, (Haggai 2:2)

Once again God tells the people to look at their present circumstances.

Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do you see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? (Hag 2:3)

In 586 B.C. the last Jews were taken into captivity to Babylon. Now it was over 60 years later. So only the few people who were 70 years old or older would have seen the original Temple in Jerusalem. God is asking those very few people to describe the contrast between the original Temple, and what they had built thus far on a new Temple. There was no comparison. In other words, there was still a great deal of work that needed to be done, before this new Temple would be acceptable to God. And that required commitment and dedication from the people. But God was going to help them.

Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land, says the LORD, and work: for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts: (Haggai 2:4)

This is basically the end of the instructions to the whole population at Jerusalem at that time. And then God switched the focus to the future, to the time of Jesus Christ’s 2nd coming. The subject is the Temple they were building at that time. So the focus shifts to the spiritual Temple that will be completed at Jesus Christ’s 2nd coming, when the 1st resurrection takes place. Notice the context for the next reference to the Temple.

For thus says the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; (Haggai 2:6)

This is what will happen at Jesus Christ’s 2nd coming. This was not for the time when Zerubbabel and Joshua were leading the Jewish remnant. So God continues to say:

And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. (Haggai 2:7)

“Shaking all nations” only happens at Christ’s 2nd coming. “The desire of all nations” also refers to Christ’s return. Now let’s look at the statement “I will fill this house with glory”.

“This house” cannot be a reference to the Temple Zerubbabel and Joshua were building, because that Temple was destroyed. It no longer exists. Nor can it be a reference to the Temple King Herod built, because that has also been destroyed. And before Jesus Christ’s 2nd coming there will not be any Temple in Jerusalem.

Here in Haggai 2:9 God is speaking about the Temple that the Apostle Paul identified in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. The people in the 1st resurrection will be the Temple that will have a greater glory than the former Temple. Let’s understand that at Haggai’s time a reference to “the former Temple” is a reference to the Temple Solomon built, whose glory was referred to in verse 3.

Haggai 2:9 is saying that the glory of the Temple that is established at the 2nd coming will be greater than the glory of Solomon’s Temple. This verse compares the spiritual Temple identified by the Apostle Paul to the splendor of Solomon’s Temple. Through His spirit God “dwells” in all those who will be in the 1st resurrection (see Romans 8:9, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19), thereby making them His Temple.  And the spiritual Temple far exceeds the glory that was associated with Solomon’s Temple.

But it is only those people who are truly repentant that will become a part of that “glorious Temple” at Christ’s 2nd coming. And this leads us to the next message.

THE THIRD MESSAGE

The 3rd message given to Haggai goes from Haggai 2:10-19. Verse 11 starts the actual message.

Thus says the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying, (Hag 2:11)

This 3rd message is addressed to all the priests. The priests obviously included Joshua the High Priest. This tells us that this message involves certain religious requirements, the special area of responsibility that belonged to the priests. Here is the question the priests were asked.

If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No. (Haggai 2:12)

This was an easy question for the priests to answer. To them the answer was obvious. From some of the sacrifices the priests received some of the meat for their personal consumption. But there were some very strict rules to be observed. So if a priest was carrying home a piece of meat from a sacrifice he had performed, if in that process any of his clothing came into contact with any other food item that was not “holy”, then the holy piece of meat from the sacrifice which the priest had performed lost its “holy” status. In effect, it was deemed to have become contaminated with common foods.

In other words, if something that is holy comes into contact with things that are common, then the holy item loses its holy status.

Now the next question for the priests.

Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. (Haggai 2:13)

This statement makes the same point as the previous question. Any food item touched by an unclean person automatically becomes unclean through that contact. Contact from an unclean person made a food item unclean. This was all a part of the ritual laws God had imposed on Israel as a penalty for sins.

[Comment: All these ceremonial laws were only imposed for a limited period of time. The Apostle Paul explained this in Hebrews 9:9-10, that the ceremonial and ritualistic laws were “imposed on them until the time of reformation”. “Until” refers to a time limit. And the Greek word translated as “reformation” literally refers to “the time of restoring something to its normal condition”. Paul is saying that the ritualistic and ceremonial laws were only imposed until the time of Christ’s resurrection. These ceremonial laws are not for God’s people today.]

These two questions have established that things become unholy and unclean when they come into contact with things that are common or unclean. Both answers were easy for the priests. Now comes the point that God is making to the priests, which point the priests were to teach to the people.

Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, says the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean. (Haggai 2:14)

God’s message is that the people are not holy, and that all their works are unclean. God is saying: the people are still unrepentant! And that creates a problem.

The problem is that God is not prepared to have “unrepentant” people build His Temple!

[Comment: This is also one reason why the Jews today cannot build a Temple before Christ’s 2nd coming. A Temple built by unrepentant Jews would simply not be acceptable to God.]

In the previous two messages God had stirred up the two leaders and then also all the people to commit to building the Temple for God. Now the people were willing to obey this instruction. But before they could start, they still needed to “repent”, to qualify as builders of God’s Temple.

I have used the words repent and unrepentant with quotation marks, because the people were not required to repent in the New Testament meaning of the word “repent”, and neither was God offering them His holy spirit at that point in time.

But they had to make a firm commitment to God, that now they would work until the Temple was completed, that they would make the building of the Temple the number one priority in their lives.

This was somewhat like Joshua leading the people into the Promised Land, but then circumcising them before they proceeded to conquer Jericho. Circumcision pictures repentance, even though the Israelites at Joshua’s time weren’t really repentant either. But they did commit to conquering the land as God had instructed them.

So likewise, the people at Haggai’s time needed to be fully committed to the job to which God had called them, even if they didn’t come to a godly repentance. And they did commit to the job.

So after this blunt criticism God once again tells the people to consider their ways, and to consider the results.

And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD: (Haggai 2:15)

Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. (Haggai 2:16)

I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you turned not to Me, says the LORD. (Haggai 2:17)

Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD’S temple was laid, consider it. (Haggai 2:18)

God wants us to associate the bad things beyond our control that happen to us (hail, mildew, blasting, famine, etc.) with God chastising us for our conduct, and for the wrong priorities we set for our own lives. God wants us to understand that when we change, then the chastisements will also stop. God controls the weather and the physical environment in which we live. And we need to be much better at recognizing God’s hand in our lives, when some of these things beyond our control affect us adversely.

Let’s understand that God is active in the life of every single person to whom God has given His spirit.

If you have God’s spirit dwelling within you, then God is absolutely involved in your life, and in the circumstances beyond your control that you will be exposed to. For those people who have God’s spirit, life is not a matter of time and chance. So we need to carefully “consider” every adverse thing that happens to us. Such occasions must always lead us to “examine ourselves”.

Let’s continue with God’s message to the spiritual leaders amongst the Jews, the priests.

Is the seed yet in the barn? yes, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, have not brought forth: from this day will I bless you. (Haggai 2:19)

When we make a firm commitment to put God first in our lives, then God also blesses us. And God’s blessings will continue as long as we hold fast to that commitment.

This brings us to the final message.

THE FOURTH MESSAGE

The actual message covers only 3 verses. And this message is directed exclusively at Zerubbabel.

Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth; (Haggai 2:21)

This is clearly a reference to the time of Jesus Christ’s 2nd coming, well over 2400 years after Zerubbabel had died. At the time of the end the original Zerubbabel will simply not be alive. So how does Zerubbabel feature in a message that refers to the time of the end?

Let’s continue.

And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. (Haggai 2:22)

This is a reference to the events that happen when the 7th Trumpet is blown at Jesus Christ’s return. This is a reference to the things that are associated with the Holy Day of Trumpets.

This message is not for Joshua, and it is not for the people. It is very specifically for Zerubbabel. So what does Zerubbabel, who was born in Babylon, and who led the Jewish return from the Babylonian captivity, have to do with Jesus Christ’s 2nd coming?

In that day, says the LORD of hosts, will I take you, O Zerubbabel, My servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the LORD, and will make you as a signet: for I have chosen you, says the LORD of hosts. (Haggai 2:23)

This is something Jesus Christ will do at His 2nd coming. Now the original Zerubbabel will be in the 1st resurrection. So he will be there with Jesus Christ. But is this talking about the original Zerubbabel, or is this code language for a servant of God who will be living at that time?

The expression “I will make you as a signet” refers to identifying Zerubbabel as a servant of God!

“Signets” identify the owners of those signets, as in: this is the king’s signet, or this is the signet of a governor or some other prominent individual. When we see a signet, then we immediately know who that signet belongs to. That is the purpose of a signet, to identify the person associated with that signet. In this case here, the signet identifies that Jesus Christ has “chosen” Zerubbabel.

The question is: for whose benefit will Jesus Christ identify Zerubbabel as one of His servants? It is not for the benefit of all the other individuals who will also be in the 1st resurrection, is it? No, it will be for the benefit of mortal human beings. It is to mortal human beings that Jesus Christ will identify Zerubbabel as one of His servants.

Now Jesus Christ will be on earth during the 7 last plagues. Those plagues will take some time to be poured out. So identifying Zerubbabel as a servant of God can be for the benefit of all those mortal human beings still alive before the plagues are poured out, or it can be for the benefit of the much smaller group of mortal human beings, who will live over into the millennium.

Now if this is a reference to the original Zerubbabel, then the mortal human beings alive at the end will not be able to identify this man, who had died more than two millennia earlier. The original Zerubbabel means nothing to people alive at Christ’s 2nd coming.

So I suspect that in this prophecy “Zerubbabel” is a code name for a servant of God who is dealing with the world at the end time, someone the world has come to hate. Making that man “a signet” tells the world: you all hated this man. But he was My servant, doing My will. And I have chosen him. Christ makes the man a signet because the world rejected that the man could be a servant of the Creator God. But the world will recognize the man’s identity because he will have lived in their generation. They’ll know who that man was in the time leading up to Christ’s return. So making the man a signet will be meaningful to the mortal human beings alive at that time.

I certainly don’t know who that “Zerubbabel” is going to be. Perhaps it is a reference to one of the two witnesses? Or perhaps it will apply to the end-time Elijah? But it is very likely a servant of God who is active shortly before Christ’s 2nd coming.

The man’s identity is at this point in time not important. And there is no value in us speculating about this “Zerubbabel” ... we are guaranteed to not find the correct answer to the man’s identity.

As stated earlier, Haggai and Zechariah prophesied at the same time, and to the same people. Where the messages to Zechariah are linked more closely to the chronological sequence established by the Book of Revelation, the messages of Haggai are focused much more on the Church of God at the end time, and the need for the Church to build the spiritual Temple of God.

We cannot afford to just “break even” by keeping all of God’s laws. We have to do more, by setting good examples for other people in the way we work and play and speak and conduct ourselves in their presence, and in the priorities we set for ourselves, and the commitment we make to actively change our way of thinking and reasoning, to be pleasing to God.

Frank W Nelte