The State of the Nation
Think of a group of people (village community, social class, state or nation) whose oldest members cannot remember more than sixty years but who were brought up on stories of how things used to be and passed them on to their children. How different it was when the community was larger, more coherent, more trustworthy and with a sense of unity and purpose. Then how, for various reasons, many people, some voluntarily, some perforce, had gone away leaving the place a pale shadow of what it used to be. Most never returned, but recently some of them had been coming back and some who had shared their life elsewhere were coming with them.
Imagine the hopes and disappointments, the fears and anxieties on all sides. Those arriving included many who had never known how it used to be. Those returning found a world not at all the same like the one they had left behind. Memories were not always reliable.
This is Haggai’s situation. Whether the Temple was already built or only half-built is uncertain, but think of it rather as a symbol of the old world, perhaps partially restored but around which there are very mixed feelings. To some restoration is crucial. Others are less enthusiastic. The issue is values and priorities in building (or re-building) for the future. Many had never had it so good yet were never satisfied. They wrap themselves in comfort but nothing seems to work. They are not short of cash but it never seems to go anywhere (v 6).
Time perhaps to ask themselves why. Were they, perhaps, putting their own homes before the Temple: self before faith, commitment to their own family before commitment to others and to God?.
Haggai tries to point them in a different direction (vv 10-11). If the earth is showing signs of poison, the skies are polluted, the crops fail, the seas change, fish supplies are running out, spring is early, autumn late, summer too hot, winter too cold, might it be because they have failed to discharge their responsibility to care for the earth, the footstool of God?