Prophets were prodders. When the people became spiritually lazy, God raised up a man to bring them to task. Sharp-tongued Haggai was just the man for the job. The temple had been started some fifteen years earlier, but discouragement caused the Israelites to abandon work on the project. Haggai come on the scene and, through his persistent preaching, got the people to work again. He told them they would never prosper at anything they did until they completed the project.
Plainly, in Haggai's prophecy, we see the relationship between prosperity and spiritual priorities. Haggai noted the desperation of the common wage earner: Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes (1:6). Then the prophet adds: Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider your ways!" (1:7). Haggai says that if they get their priorities straight, they will experience prosperity.
After Haggai preached his four short sermons, the people took up the challenge and completed the temple. The last word Haggai spoke is a beautiful promise to Israel. Speaking to Zerubbabel, symbol of the whole nation, the prophet promises that the faithful ones would be like God's signet ring. They would have authority, would be His prized possession, and would impress those they touched. Modern believers should pray for a similar position of power.
“In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts.”
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