Haggai 1:13 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

Then spake Haggai the LORD's messenger in the LORD's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD.

Then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger - so the priests (Malachi 2:7) are called (cf. Galatians 4:14; 2 Peter 1:21).

In the Lord's message - i:e., invested with the Lord's authority and commission: on the Lord's embassage.

I am with you. So the Lord's promise of His continual presence with His Church is inseparably connected with her obedience, "Teaching them (all nations) to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). On the people showing the mere disposition to obey, even before they actually set to work, God passes at once from the reproving tone to that of tenderness. He hastens, as it were, to forget their former unfaithfulness, and to assure them, when obedient, that He both is and will be with them: Hebrew, 'I with you!' God's presence is the best of blessings, because it includes all others. This is the sure guarantee of their success, how many soever their foes might be, (Romans 8:31, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"). Nothing more inspirits men, and rouses them from torpor, than when, relying on the promises of divine aid, they have a sure hope of a successful issue (Calvin).

Haggai 1:13

13 Then spake Haggai the LORD'S messenger in the LORD'S message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD.