Haggai 1:13 - Exposition

Then spake Haggai. God hastens to accept their repentance and to assure them of his protection. The Lord's messenger. Haggai alone of the prophets uses this title of himself, implying that he came with authority and bearing a message from the Lord (comp. Numbers 20:16 , where the word "angel" is by some applied to Moses). Malachi's very name expresses that he was the Lord's messenger, and he uses the term of the priest ( Malachi 2:7 ), and of John the Baptist, and of Messiah himself ( Malachi 3:1 ). In the Lord's message ( 1 Kings 13:18 ). In the special message of consolation which he was commissioned to deliver. The Septuagint rendering, ἐν ἀγγέλοις κυρίου , "anong the angels of the Lord," led some to fancy that Haggai was an angel in human farm, which opinion is refuted by Jerome, in loc. I am with you ( Haggai 2:4 ). A brief message comprised in two words, "I with you," yet full of comfort, promising God's presence, protection, aid, and blessing (comp. Genesis 28:15 ; Genesis 39:2 ; Joshua 1:5 ; Jeremiah 1:8 ; Matthew 28:20 ).