V. 1. In the other year of King Darius, in the sixth month.
This prophet was simultaneous with Zechariah, for both prophesied under King Darius (namely, the fourth, who first succeeded King Cambyses in the reign), except that Haggai began two months before Zechariah, which is indicated by the titles of both prophets, for the one began to prophesy in the sixth month, the other in the eighth, as the Histories also indicate.
On the first day (in the una).
The Hebrews used the same expression for one day and the first day, as it also appears from Gen. 1, 5: "Then the evening and the morning became the first day" (this unus). But here it should have been translated: On the first day (in the prima). - 1) In manu, that is, through Haggai.
V. 2. This people says: The time has not yet come.
He begins with rebuke, that is the way of all prophets. For first of all they rebuke, they threaten God's wrath, then they add sweet and lovely promises. This is not done by the devil, who first lures souls with enticements; when he has thus led them into error, he overthrows and corrupts them. Satau's preachers do the same by their teaching. God, however, first leads into hell, but then out again; he humbles and restores; he disgraces through shame and finally makes glorious.
Therefore, the rebuke of the people begins here because of their negligence, since they had neglected to build the temple of the Lord because they had been deterred. And this is the opinion of the people, as if they wanted to say: We have indeed started to build the temple under Cyrus, but the neighboring
1) Already here the Weimar edition has the verse number "3." The verse number "2." is missing.
The fact that the Gentiles prevented us from continuing the work we had begun leads us to believe that it is not the will of the Lord that the temple be rebuilt by us. This opinion is countered by the prophet, or the Lord through the prophet; he wants the work that has been started to be carried out diligently, he wants it to be carried out through all enemies, through all violence. He wants us to look to His will, so that we do not succumb, weary and overcome by adversity, so that we may persevere and be saved. That is why we must break through, no matter how much the world rages against it.
Therefore, no one in the preaching ministry of God has an excuse for being attacked, for the world, the devil, or the princes of the world, or whatever enemies they may be, to set themselves against him, because if he is a servant of God and believes, he knows very well that his Lord is mightier and higher than all authority and power, he knows that all the wisdom, power, glory, and strength of the world before God is nothing but dust of the earth, which a violent and impetuous storm throws here and there. So he also knows that God has promised that when his servants are brought to trial and have to stand before kings and princes, he will give them a mouth and wisdom that no one will ever know. He will give them a mouth and wisdom that no one can resist, just as He promised Jeremiah [Cap. 1, 18]: "I will make you a strong city and a pillar of iron" etc.
V. 4. But your time is here etc.
The prophet carefully describes the unbelief of the people, namely that they had the power and the greatness of the king of the Persians before their eyes, likewise the anger and the power of the neighboring heathens. But the divine power was not so before their eyes, therefore they could not but fear and succumb. This is how we must die, this is how we must be overcome, if, since we are to die, we are to wait for death and for
We must not look at sin, which must inevitably make our conscience guilty and disgraceful, and condemn the dismayed conscience. On the contrary, we must act in such a way that we turn our eyes away from sin, from death, from the devil, from the adversaries, in short, from all evils that are difficult for us, and be as joyful and cheerful full of confidence as if this were nothing at all, as if it were none of our business, as the prophet says in the Psalm [Ps. 3:7]: "I am not afraid of many hundreds of those who are baptized, who lie about against me." The prophet acts in the same way here, when he wants to bring the people from unbelief to faith, as if he wanted to say: "If it is not time to rebuild the house of the Lord, how is it time to build your houses? In you, therefore, is all unbelief and avarice, since you are all eager to build your houses and leave the work of the Lord pending. You are only concerned about your own benefit, but not about what is the Lord's in the same way. By the way, that he says:
So I don't know if it is said in praise or disparagement of the houses. I understand it simply from the covered houses, because I do not think that they had vaulted or with arches deliciously built houses, so that the simple sense is: You neglect my house and leave it desolate, but for your houses you take care, your houses you build etc.
V. 5. 6. See how you are doing etc.
[Ponite corda vestra super vias vestras] is a Hebrew saying. It means: consider your ways and your undertakings or your works, consider the prosperity of your affairs. "Consider how you fare," as if to say, "From punishment you may well realize that you have sinned, since everything goes out to you so unhappily, since the flourishing of all things is so undesirable, since the earth does not return with usury the seed it has received, since the vineyards have borne grapes meagerly etc. Ye have eaten, and have not been satisfied, and have had little to feed yourselves upon, and have gathered money no other way than into a crushed and pierced bag. For
By the word "bag" he means the container in which we keep our money. Therefore, it is a proverbial image: You have put your money in a bag full of holes, that is, everything disappears from under your hands, you have no success in your affairs etc. But behold God's wonderful counsel. He had brought this people out of the servitude of Egypt with great miracles and with a strong hand, he had fed them lazily in the wilderness for forty years, he had slain many pagans and the kings who were hostile to this people, until he led them into the land promised to the fathers. But what does he do? Since the people had already been led into the land that had such exceedingly rich promises made to them and to the fathers, he lets them be attacked and miserably afflicted by the neighboring nations. The land does not return to them the entrusted seed with usury, they sow in vain, they reap in vain, they hunger and thirst. Is this what it means to stand by the promises? Here nothing less was in view than that God would be true and keep what he had promised. Yes, just the opposite happened, since the people were in such great need, in such great misery: Lack, in such great misery was oppressed. But this is how God, in His goodness, acts according to His ways, to make us fools and to make our attempts fail, so that we may learn that we can do nothing with our counsel or our efforts, that everything is nothing and nothing succeeds, but that the Lord alone does everything, so that we may restore everything to Him. Then, after we have endured the storm, it will be turned into lovely, cheerful weather. Lest the Jews should afterwards boast and ascribe anything to their strength, they were forced to confess of necessity, but were taught by experience that when all was in despair, they were encouraged by the Lord, that the Lord had given them both a courageous heart and good fortune in their affairs, so that they rebuilt the temple etc.
V. 7: See how you are doing.
This is a repetition of the previous. As if to say, time is not to blame, but what you have earned is
It was your fault that you could not continue and carry out the work you had started. For the time was already there when you could have continued etc.
V. 8: Go to the mountains and cut wood. 1)
This is the second part of the prophetic sermon. For after the threats and the scolding he adds here promises, so that it does not seem as if he had forgotten the prophetic office. Here now a clear and obvious word of God is added to the work of man. This word clearly commands the rebuilding of the Temple, since no work, no matter how brilliant and good it may seem, is valid before God, unless the word of God approves it, or unless it is confirmed by the word of God that it is based on the word of God. For even consciences can never be certain without the Word, which sets forth God's will against us. Then, when the conscience is so fortified and assured by the Word that such a work is approved by God, that he has undertaken it at God's command, then he submits himself to every thing, he breaks through by always looking to the will of God; then it happens that everything becomes pleasing to God, however much the weakness of our flesh may hinder it, which we see in the apostle Paul. - "Up the mountain." I take "the mountain" for the place where the temple had been built before, where it was now to be built again. Here we must be mindful of what we said above immediately in the beginning, that the matter must be assessed according to the words of God, and then it will be seen that it is an exceedingly high work, which is commanded and confirmed by the word of God etc.
I want that to be pleasant.
This is another and certainly a great promise, that their hearts will be so fixed by God through the Word of God that they will not be able to doubt that it pleases God to do what is presented.
- Go up the mountain, bring wood. This is what the interpretation refers to.
work taken. The evangelists also used this way of speaking, as [Matth. 3, 17.]: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" etc. The mountain in itself was nothing at all, for it was earth, as is the foundation of the whole world, but because God chooses this place by His word, because He declares that this place pleases Him, that He wants to show His glory in this place, it certainly has an advantage over all the other mountains, and that by the power of God's word. And certainly this place alone was a great cause for the Jews to rage against the Christians and against the prophets who spoke against the temple, as is also evident from the Acts of the Apostles in the history of Stephen [Apost. 6, 13. 7, 48. ff.]. The kingdom of Christ was promised to the Jews, to which everything that preceded, both words and works, had to be related, as everything was intended to be. Therefore all works had to be directed to Christ; because the hypocrites did not do this, they deceived themselves and others. This was certainly an extremely sweet promise for the Jews, since they were made certain of God's good pleasure through the word of God with regard to an outward sign, namely the bodily temple, just as our sacraments are also extremely pleasing to the eye, since Christ wanted them to be signs of the grace promised and shown through Him etc.
And will show my honor.
The first temple was very splendid, it stood tall, it was very exquisitely built; with great riches, with a great amount of gold, silver and precious stones it was abundantly provided, as can be seen from the first book of Kings. But the glory of this last temple was not less, though it was not so exquisitely rebuilt, for the construction could not be compared with the first. But the worship in the last temple was much more famous, since at that time all the nations, which before the captivity were extremely hostile to the Jews, finally went up at the same time as the Jews to this last temple to worship God, as I also mentioned above in the third chapter of Zephaniah [v. 10].
which did not happen in the first temple, to which alone the Jews came to worship God.
V. 9. 1) So I destroy it.
The prophet throws his sermon whimsically through each other. For here he returns to the previous scolding, when he had said: "Look how you are doing" etc. But the Hebrew word [XXX] means to blow, as is also clear from the first book of Moses [Cap. 2, 7/, "to breathe into a thing", to let out the breath. By this word it is indicated that God very easily turns the present abundance into nothing, that when He curses, nothing succeeds, that even the greatest abundance fades away; and again He can send the greatest blessing into the greatest poverty, as it is His way that He makes everything out of nothing, out of the greatest poverty the greatest prosperity and an exceedingly happy progress and success in all things, as many Psalms and the Gospel histories are full of.
Every man hastens to his house.
That is, you are too intent on your own affairs.
V. 11. And I have called the drought, both over land and mountains, over grain (super triticum).
Our copies read badly: vocavit super triticum; more correctly it should read: about grain etc. Above we have said everything.
V. 12. 2) And the people feared the Lord.
Here the prophet adds what fruit the preached word has brought, since the word of God is such that when it is preached, it never returns empty. It cannot but produce fruit in some to whom it is sent, as it says in Isaiah Cap. 55, 11. So here, after hearing the word of God, they received the word in faith and believed the word, and they were awakened and made ready to do the work that was to be done.
1) In the Weimar one, this verse number is missing.
2) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
God had commanded, which would not have happened if God's goodness had not sent ahead the most lovely and comforting promises, by which, strengthened, they did not doubt that they would be pleasing to God by rebuilding the Temple.
V. 13. 3) Then spoke Haggai, the angel of the Lord, who had the message of the Lord (de uunciis Domini).
I would rather read [instead of de nunciis Domini]: inter angelos Domini, so that the Greek word [άγγελος --- angel would remain, as it is also in Malachi Cap. 3, 1. "Behold, I will send my angel" etc. Likewise elsewhere [Mal. 2, 7.], "For he is an angel of the Lord of hosts." This word was also taken up by the evangelist Matthew [Matth. 11, 10.]: "Behold, I send my angel before thee" etc. "Messenger" does not have such a glorious meaning, and it is not necessary to distinguish the Spirit (whom we call angel) from man by the word angel. For all who bring the word of God, who are the proclaimers or ministers of the word, are called angels of God, as those of Satan are angels, who devote their services to Satan, who bring Satan's doctrine, as the apostle Paul also called them. It is truly a great honor for a miserable poor man to be called a messenger of God and to have the same name in common with the heavenly spirits, as Paul also calls himself a messenger of God here and there, and here Haggai calls himself an angel of the Lord for the sake of the prestige of the Word etc.
I am with you, says the Lord.
I think that here is a new sermon, because Haggai did not complete this whole prophecy in one sermon. And the prophets sometimes have a way of reciting the richest and most glorious promises only in extremely short words, as also here the unspeakable mercy of God is promised in words that seem to be so brief and short. If God is for us, who can oppose us?
3) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
Much 1) less will any enemy be able to harm us as he cannot harm GOtte. Here all creatures must give way. If we have God as our protector (for that is what he calls God being with us), no evil, no pestilence, no persecution, no physical or spiritual challenge can be so great that he will let us succumb. For how should creatures be able to overcome their Creator? See the eighth^ chapter of the Epistle to the Romans [v. 38. f.]. And this the prophet no doubt set forth in very many words when he preached.
V. 14. And the Lord raised the spirit of Zerubbabel.
He also adds the fruit of this sermon. By the way, it was not enough to have heard the word, if the Lord had not also given power to the word, so that it would be effective in their hearts. For God must be present with His effect when we hear the word, as Christ also says [John 6:44]: "No one can come to Me except the Father" etc. For it must be the Spirit
1) Instead of von we have assumed Luüto, likewise soon following instead of t^uleuL^uo "Maro set Mi8t^uarL. The whole sentence reads in our template: LOL Minus Lodis Loeoro potorit üostis auieuLHuo Huum ut äoo LOL potost Loeoro.
2) In the original vorburo. The Weimar edition correctly notes that after the context spirituiL must stand.
as a companion of the Word, which kindles the heart, as it is said here that the spirit of Zerubbabel and the others is awakened. This passage argues against the nonsensical prophets of our times, who despise, even completely reject the preaching of the Word, although it is brighter than the light here, that the Holy Spirit writes into the hearts exactly what Haggai had preached etc.
The spirit.
That is, the heart, "a courage". The Germans use this word in various ways: "He has courage," that is, he is hopeful, likewise courageous, gifted with a certain strength of spirit to bravely endure adversity. Thus, the Spirit is awakened in us by God when God blows on us with His Spirit, when He instills in us courage or confidence through the Spirit to pursue some undertaking that we would otherwise hardly have dared to approach because we were fearful. Namely, the Holy Spirit is like this because we are fearful in the things of God. The flesh cannot entrust itself to God, it cannot but fear the world and the adversaries. Therefore, we need the Spirit as a strengthener and encourager. When the Spirit comes, he encourages us so that we will not withdraw from anything for the glory of God, but dare to do anything, even to approach God.