Haggai 2

Haggai 2:1-9 . SECOND PROPHECY. The people, discouraged at the inferiority of this temple to Solomon's, are encouraged nevertheless to persevere, because God is with them, and this house by its connection with Messiah's kingdom shall have a glory far above that of gold and silver.

1. seventh month--of the Hebrew year; in the second year of Darius reign ( Haggai 1:1 ); not quite a month after they had begun the work ( Haggai 1:15 ). This prophecy was very shortly before that of Zechariah.

3. Who is left . . . that saw . . . first glory--Many elders present at the laying of the foundation of the second temple who had seen the first temple ( Ezra 3:12 Ezra 3:13 ) in all its glory, wept at the contrast presented by the rough and unpromising appearance of the former in its beginnings. From the destruction of the first temple to the second year of Darius Hystaspes, the date of Haggai's prophecy, was a space of seventy years ( Zechariah 1:12 ); and to the first year of Cyrus, or the end of the captivity, fifty-two years; so that the elders might easily remember the first temple. The Jews note five points of inferiority: The absence from the second temple of (1) the sacred fire; (2) the Shekinah; (3) the ark and cherubim; (4) the Urim and Thummim; (5) the spirit of prophecy. The connection of it with Messiah more than counterbalanced all these; for He is the antitype to all the five ( Haggai 2:9 ).
how do ye see it now?--God's estimate of things is very different from man's ( Zechariah 8:6 ; compare 1 Samuel 16:7 ). However low their estimate of the present temple ("it") from its outward inferiority, God holds it superior ( Zechariah 4:10 , 1 Corinthians 1:27 1 Corinthians 1:28 ).

4. be strong . . . for I am with you--The greatest strength is to have Jehovah with us as our strength. Not in man's "might," but in that of God's Spirit ( Zechariah 4:6 ).

5. According to the word that--literally, "(I am with you) the word (or thing) which I covenanted"; that is, I am with you as I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt ( Exodus 19:5 Exodus 19:6 , Exodus 34:10 Exodus 34:11 ). The covenant promise of God to the elect people at Sinai is an additional motive for their persevering. The Hebrew for to "covenant" is literally "to cut," alluding to the sacrificial victims cut in ratification of a covenant.
so--or, "and."
my Spirit remaineth among you--to strengthen you for the work ( Haggai 1:14 , Zechariah 4:6 ). The inspiration of Haggai and Zechariah at this time was a specimen of the presence of God's Spirit remaining still with His people, as He had been with Moses and Israel of old ( Ezra 5:1 , Isaiah 63:11 ).