"In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, (2) Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built."
The text Haggai would have chosen to have preached this Sermon from, had he been blessed with it, would have been those sweet words of the Lord Jesus: Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33. He was stirred up to call the people to the consideration of their ways, and the deplorable state in which the Lord's house laid waste. That awful delay which for the most part forms the character of most men, in providing for their grand concerns, operated with the people of God, after their return from Babylon, in respect to the Lord's house. They found Solomon's temple in ruins; but none thought of rebuilding it. Haggai is informed of this by the word of the Lord; and it should seem that the prophet's mind was greatly excited thereby. What a sad state of putting off it is in soul concerns!