On October 17, 520 BC the Lord spoke the words above (Haggai 2:3-5, 9) to the people standing on
Mount Moriah who were either watching the work or working on the Temple after Haggai’s first message on August 29 of that same year (Haggai 1:1-11). It had been sixty-six years since
the Temple had been destroyed, but some of those people that had returned from Babylon may
have seen the former Temple or even worshipped in that Temple Solomon had built. A person who was 15 years old in 586 BC when Babylon burned the Temple could have returned in 538 as
a 63 year old. That same person would be watching the beginning of the rebuilding of the
Temple as an 81 year old listening to Haggai speak to them in 520 BC.

Solomon’s Temple and its large courts and precincts would have been busy with activity from
a well-staffed priesthood and the daily visits of worshippers. A worship center that had once
been a well equipped and richly decorated center of Jewish society was now in the early
stages of being dug out of the burned rubble and smashed stones that had been weathered
and overgrown during 66 years of desolation.

Surely the people considered this as meager attempt, if not a hopeless fantasy, to recreate
one of history's legendary buildings and the greatness of a struggling Jewish society.
Because of the impossibility of the task and virtually insurmountable odds that they would
even make a dent in history there in 520 BC God sent Haggai to encourage:

1. Joshua, the high priest
2. Zerubbabel the Jewish governor who was placed in a position of leadership and authority by the ruling Persian Empire
3. The people who had returned to their land with faith in God’s promise of a restored Jewish nation

Haggai told them:

“That’s right, some of you remember Solomon’s glorious temple! This insignificant foundation we have laid here is for a much smaller temple. And, you might ask, ‘Why even try? It amounts to nothing even from the start.’ But, all of you be strong and keep building because I am with you. I have not forgotten my covenant and plans for Israel. In fact, the glory and stories that will be told about this Temple you are building now will dwarf the legends of Solomon and his Temple!! Be strong and get it done, Joshua and Zerubbabel and all you people!”

"It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants...From being thoughtless or indifferent
about religion, it seemed
as if all the world were
growing religious, so that
one could not walk through
the town in an evening
without hearing psalms
sung in different families
of every street."
– Benjamin Franklin [Philadelphia, 1730's,
on the effects of George Whitefield's preaching]