A process took place here.
First, the returned exiles encountered obstacles to rebuilding God's temple.
Second, they looked around at the seen obstacles instead of looking with faith at the as yet unseen temple the Lord promised would be rebuilt.
Third, having convinced themselves by looking only at the current circumstances that it was hopeless to try to rebuild the temple, the Jews decided their time would be better spent on doing what they wanted to do for themselves.
Fourth, God had what the people put their hand to for themselves not produce any successful results.
Fifth, the Jews wondered why they weren't seeing the results they wanted.
Sixth, God sent Haggai with a message telling them why.
v1-9: Of course, God was telling everybody something they needed to keep in mind.
While the temple that was being rebuilt by the returned remnant wouldn't aesthetically be anything like as glorious as Solomon's temple, this was not what was important. The crux of the thing was that the Lord was with the people in their rebuilding of the temple.
The promise He made to their forefathers was still in effect for those who were faithful to His covenant and that meant the Jews could be confident in what they were doing.
God refers to Himself both in verses 5 and 6 as the Lord of hosts, meaning the commander of the Heavenly army. The Lord of hosts is going to come back to Earth one day, shaking up the nations that have forsaken Him and have harmed their fellow humans God the Creator made. This will be fulfilled when Christ returns to Earth.
However, verse 7 speaks of Christ's first coming as well, when He came as the desire of all nations, the promised Messiah, the Saviour who was long hoped for.
God has the right to rule this planet because all its wealth, currently possessed by the wicked nations that will soon be shaken is actually His since He created it all.
Here in the temple which those who'd returned from Babylon were rebuilding, God Himself in the form of the Son Jesus Christ would enter, bringing His glory and message of peace.
v10-19: The priests needed to be reminded, and to remind the people, of their responsibility to live righteously. Just because the Lord was with them in rebuilding the temple did not guarantee the returned exiles could do whatever they wanted and continue to have God on their side.
v20-23: Zerubbabel needed to know that the nations that were currently threatening Judah and trying to hamper the rebuilding of the temple would shortly come to no good end and that the governor's seal of approval, as it were, would one day be on the completed construction project.
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