WHILE Haggai touches upon many topics, he has been rightly described as "a man of one idea"— namely, the speedy restoration of the Temple of Jehovah. A word should be added in explanation of this emphasis.
The attitude of Haggai toward the Temple was not that of the pre-exilic prophets. True, they too considered the Temple the dwelling place of Jehovah, but their teaching dwelt almost exclusively upon weightier spiritual and ethical matters. The point to remember is that the change in emphasis on the part of Haggai . . . was due, not to inferior religious capacity and insight, but to a change in environment. Conditions in Jerusalem in 520 b. c. were far different from what they had been in the eighth century. As a true prophet Haggai must adapt himself and his message to the needs of the new age. The Jews of the latter part of the sixth century were not prepared for the lofty conception of the presence of Jehovah which could dispense with a house made with hands. The common people needed the Temple as an external symbol of the presence of Jehovah as much as earlier generations ever needed the ark. Moreover, with the central political government gone a new bond was needed to hold together the different elements in the local community as well as the exiles scattered among the nations. In a religious community, what institution could serve this purpose better than a common center of worship, a place to which the hearts of pious Jews everywhere might turn, assured that there they could meet their God and hold intercourse with Him?
Is it, then, too much to say that undoubtedly the very existence of Jewish religion depended, in the days of Haggai, on the rebuilding of the Temple? If that was the supreme need of the hour, Haggai, by pleading so persistently for the restoration of the Temple, rendered a service of incalculable moment.
