Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Haggai 2:19
Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless [you].
19. Is the seed yet in the barn? ] i.e. Is it any longer in the barn? Is it not all exhausted and used up? The meagre yield of the blighted corn was soon consumed and the granary left empty. Some have thought that by “the seed” is here meant what would be required to sow the land for another year, and that the dearth and distress are heightened by the fact that there is not even corn enough left to sow. But as the word is frequently used, not of seed corn, but of produce (e.g. 1Sa 8:15; Isa 23:3; Job 39:12), and as the remainder of the verse refers to produce, it is better taken in that sense here.
yea, as yet ] There is no reason to depart from the usual meaning of the Hebrew word here rendered “as yet,” viz. “unto,” or “as regards,” “And unto or as regards (extending our notice from the corn to) the vine, etc. it (i.e. each one of these trees) hath not brought forth (fruit).” It would then best accord with the English idiom to leave the word untranslated, as in R. V. The rendering of A. V. is however thought by some to be supported by Job 1:18; 1Sa 14:19.
from this day will I bless you ] It might be asked, why not from the day three months earlier than this (ch. Hag 1:14-15), when they first resumed the building of the temple? It has been suggested in explanation that up to this time, though they had indeed begun again to build, they had been slack and remiss in their efforts, but that from this day, instigated by this fresh appeal of Haggai, they had taken a new departure of zeal and earnestness, and that consequently from this day the blessing was to begin. But there is no proof whatever that this was so, and it is therefore better to suppose that up to this day the effects of the failure of the last harvest were still apparent, and no outward change had yet taken place in their prospects. “He would then say, that even in these last months, since they had begun the work, there were as yet no signs for the better. There was yet no seed in the barn, the harvest having been blighted, and the fruit-trees stripped by the hail before the close of the sixth month, when they resumed the work. Yet though there were as yet no signs of change, no earnest that the promise should be fulfilled, God pledges His word, from this day I will bless you.” Pusey.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Hag 2:19
From this day will I bless you.
The birthday of blessing
The cause of much ill success in life is often to be found in the want of zeal for Gods house. The temple was a type of that Church of which every individual believer is a living stone. From the day when the foundation of that temple is laid, the promise of the text is ours. When is the foundation day from which the blessing dates? In one sense it is from everlasting, for Gods people are, in purpose, part of the building from before all time. But the day of conversion is the day on which is laid–as far as our experience is concerned–the foundation of our salvation.
I. A specified day. This blessed day goes by different names in Scripture. A day of espousals: the day in which Jesus, our heavenly Bridegroom, wins the heart of His bride. A day of power. It is a mighty act to convert a sinner, infinitely beyond the power of man, and glorifying even to the omnipotence of God. The day of salvation. This name describes itself.
1. This day often has a cloudy dawning. The day of grace begins before there is actual light. Just before the light breaks in, the power of darkness makes its most desperate resistance.
2. The day has often a secret dawning. There are those who cannot say exactly when or how they were converted. Foolishly they fear they can never have been converted at all, as they are unable to say it was then, and it was there.
3. Sometimes this day has an early, and sometimes a long-delayed dawn. God has no fixed age at which to convert.
4. This day, like all others, has a silent dawn. It is seen, but not heard.
5. The dawning of this day, like the dawning of all other days, is irresistible. If it is the work of God, it must stand.
6. The dawn is but the commencement of the day. The morning is the noon in childhood; the noon is but the dawn fully developed.
II. A declared blessing. It includes all spiritual blessings; pardon, peace, etc. It rests on all our temporal affairs. It extends to all future things. (Archibald G. Brown.)
Promises to bless encouragements to work
1. Concerning the great Promiser, the following considerations are interesting.
(1) He is Jehovah.
(2) The Promiser is the God of the people to whom the promises are made.
(3) The Promiser is strong and faithful round about.
(4) The Promiser is Lord of elements and seasons.
2. Concerning the good things which the Lord our God promises. Comprehended in the term, bless. Includes–
(1) The removal of material evils.
(2) Means of fertility and plenty.
(3) A blessing with the means.
(4) A blessing upon the possession and use of those good things which the Lord produces by the means.
3. The people whom the Lord promiseth to bless.
(1) They were His own people.
(2) A people for whom the Promiser had lately done great things.
(3) A people who had been negligent and slothful in the work which the authority of the Promiser required, and gratitude to their Redeemer bound them to perform.
(4) A people whose negligence had been chastised.
(5) A people who were now learning to do well.
4.The day on which the Lord promiseth to bless His people.
(1) A specified day.
(2) The day on which they turned to the Lord, and began to build.
(3) The day on which the promise began to be performed.
Learn–
1. For the good things of this life the people of God have His covenant and promises.
2. Operations of material power are operations of God.
3. The zeal of the Lord of hosts hath done ,great things for the house of His name.
4. Building the house of the Lord is connected with blessing. (A. Shanks.)
The benediction of Haggai
These are the words of Haggai, whom the Lord raised up in his old age for the purpose of calling His people from the sin of religious indifference to the earnest performance of duty. As Gods prophet, it was his duty to expostulate, to trace the connection between sinful neglect and its effects, to picture in dark but true colours the woes of the people, but also to pronounce the promise of benediction and peace.
I. The promise asserts that in God and from God is the blessedness of his people.
1. There is nothing we can satisfactorily substitute for the blessing of God.
2. If we have it we need fear no evil from any other source.
II. The promise directly refers to temporal blessing, but includes spiritual. The picture presented is descriptive of the peoples estate. We ought to connect the goodness and love of God with all the material blessedness of life, as well as with the higher spiritual side of it. There is no department of life from which God need be shut out. But the promise certainly includes the higher blessings belonging to spiritual life and development.
III. The promise is given as the result of obedience, the sincerity of which practical proof has been supplied. We must not try to drive a bargain with God. The service our Lord wants is the service of faith and love. Let that be rendered and the blessing may tarry, but come it will, and just because it has tarried it may be all the richer and better.
IV. The promise is fixed and continuous. From this day. That is definite enough. The benediction had been stored up–now it was to fall like the refreshing ram over all the land. And the blessing is to be continuous. To-day, and every succeeding day, I will bless you. The premiss is most reliable. From the words of the promise we look to Him who made it. He is able to fulfil it. (Adam Scott.)
The day of dedication to God is the day of blessing
I. The promise–blessing. This blessing of the Lord conveys a promise that He would not only withdraw the evils under which they suffered, and send fertility and plenty, but also pour down on them the Spirit of His grace. Esau was blessed with outward prosperity. Jacob had the full blessing, spiritual and temporal. He whom God blesses is blessed here and hereafter in body and in soul.
II. The time of it–from this day; that is, from the day the foundation of the temple was laid. On this the prophet lays great stress. Who has not noticed a turn of providence in favour of those who have returned into the way of duty; and that, from that very day, God has blessed them? Indeed, this is aa unchangeable law in Gods government of the world.
III. The reason of this promise of the Lord. It seems that the people busied themselves with their own temporal affairs, purposing to build the temple when they could better afford it. God frustrated their selfish policy, by sending blasting and mildew in their fields, and causing their money to waste away insensibly, as though it had been put into a bag with holes. But when they reversed their mode of proceeding, from that very day God blessed them. God ordinarily proceeds to deal with men as they deal with Him. They who freely offer to Him their goods to carry on His work are blessed by Him with increase.
IV. This temple at Jerusalem was typical of the Church of Christ, of which He is the foundation and the superstructure. In this spiritual house we are all more immediately interested than in the building of the material temple. As Christians, we are all members of this spiritual building. Are we building on Christ, the only foundation? (Alfred Jones, T. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Your seed for the next harvest is yet in your barns, unsown, and no one can make any conjecture yet, whether next years increase shall be great and blessed, or whether it shall be blasted and little; I do not speak, saith Haggai, on conjecture, but in the name of the Lord foretell and promise you, that it shall be a plentiful harvest to you. Nor have your fruit trees yet put forth, no sign yet appears what vintage you shall have, what store of wine, oil, figs, and pomegranates, which are your choice and rich fruits; but in the word of God I tell you, you shall be blessed in them all, and have a large produce, a joyful vintage.
From this day: see Hag 2:10,15.
I will bless you, in all your labour; as before you were blasted in all because you neglected, so now you shall be blessed in all because you diligently build, the temple of the Lord.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. Is the seed yet in thebarn?implying, It is not. It has been already sown thismonth, and there are no more signs of its bearing a good crop, muchless of its being safely stored in the barn, than there werein the past season, when there was such a failure; yet I promise toyou from this day (emphatically marking by the repetition theconnection of the blessing with the day of their obedience) ablessing in an abundant harvest. So also the vine, &c.,which heretofore have borne little or nothing, shall be blessedwith productiveness. Thus it will be made evident that the blessingis due to Me, not to nature. We may trust God’s promise to bless us,though we see no visible sign of its fulfilment (Hab2:3).
Hag2:20-23. FOURTHPROPHECY. God’s promisethrough Zerubbabel to Israel of safety in the coming commotions.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Is the seed yet in the barn?…. The seed for sowing the land, in order for the next harvest: this is by some answered in the affirmative, it was in the barn, it was not yet sown; this being the ninth month, the month Chisleu, which answers to part of our November; rather it should be in the negative, no, it was just sown; and therefore no conjecture could be made, whether it would be a good harvest, or not; yet the prophet, in the name of the Lord, promises them a good one so long before hand: for the month Chisleu, which was the ninth month, was the last for sowing, and even the first half of that; for so say r the Jews,
“half Tisri, all Marchesvan, and half Chisleu, is seed time;”
so that this being that month, seed time must have been just over; and the sense, is there any seed in the barn? no, it is sown; and so, is there any remaining in the granary for the support of families until the next harvest? they knew there were none, or very little: and yet the Lord promises to bless them, so that they should have enough:
yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth; their various fruits; this not being the time of their bearing fruit, for it was winter time; and it could not be said what they would bring forth in their season so long before hand; yet it is suggested by the prophet that they would be very fruitful; which were the principal fruit trees the land of Israel abounded with, De 8:8 and on which their comfortable subsistence depended. Kimchi observes, that it may be wondered at that the olive tree should be mentioned, because the time of its bearing fruit were the months of Marchesvan and Chisleu; but perhaps the time of its bearing fruit was delayed (as he says) because of the curse upon it:
from this day will I bless you; with plenty of all good things, in their fields and gardens, in their vineyards and olive yards; so that a difference between former and present times, and those to come, would easily be discerned, and the reasons of it.
r T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 106. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(19) Is the seed yet in the barn?i.e., There is no grain as yet in the barn, the harvest having been blighted in the last season. The term rendered in the Authorised Version seed does not imply grain for sowing, but grain for provision. The fruit harvest was as defective as that of cereals, having been cut off by the hail. (See Hag. 2:17.) The prospect was thus one of deepest gloom. But human helplessness is Gods opportunity. He pledges His word even at this crisis by the mouth of Haggai, From this day I will bless.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Hag 2:19. Yea, as yet the vine, &c. Have the vine, &c. yet brought forth nothing. Houbigant. From this day have I blessed you. The prophet makes a comparison between the dearth which preceded the building of the temple, and the fertility following, while the temple was building; and if there were not a present fertility, and already begun, there could be no place left for a comparison.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1236
GOD RECOMPENSES OUR WORKS
Hag 2:19. From this day will I bless you.
MEN, when they see so great a disparity in the states of their fellow-men, are apt to imagine that there is an inequality in the ways of God. But Gods ways are equal, both in the dealings of his providence, and in the dispensations of his grace [Note: Eze 18:25-29. with Psa 18:25.]. True, indeed, this equality, under the Mosaic economy, was evinced in temporal gifts, whereas it is now manifested rather in spiritual blessings: and we may all observe it in reference to ourselves, almost as clearly as they could who are addressed in my text. Let us,
I.
Review the dealings of God with us in past times
God called his people, after their return from Babylon, to consider how he had dealt with them. Whilst they were occupied only in their own concerns, and neglected to execute his will in the rebuilding of the temple, he visited them with sore and successive judgments: but now that they were engaged in that sacred work, he bade them take notice, even from the very day that they had commenced the work, that he would bless them. Now, consider how God has dealt with us,
1.
Before we began to seek the Lord
[We might prosper perhaps in temporal things, as the world accounts prosperity; but what was the real state of our minds? Did we find all the satisfaction in them which we hoped for? We sowed largely in hope: but when we reaped, and came to measure the produce, were we not grievously disappointed? Say, brethren, was there even one half the happiness derived from them that you expected [Note: See ver. 16, 17.]? Did you not find, that whilst you neglected to seek your happiness in God, the blessings which you sought with the greatest avidity and labour were but as broken cisterns, that could hold no water [Note: Jer 2:13.]? Yes; you must confess that every thing to which you looked for comfort has proved, not only vanity, but vexation of spirit also [Note: Ecc 1:14.]. There was a worm at the root of every gourd from which you expected consolation and repose [Note: Jon 4:6-7.].]
2.
Since we turned to him
[Possibly enough, in respect to temporal things, you may have suffered loss. But has not that loss been abundantly made up to you, by an increase of grace, and by the manifestations of Gods love to your soul? Have you not learned, that mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth [Note: Luk 12:15.]; and that he only is happy who seeks his happiness in God? Possibly, too, you may have been bowed down greatly under the weight and burthen of your sins: yet will I ask with confidence, whether you do not look upon that day, when you were first convinced of sin, and stirred up to flee from the wrath to come, as the best and happiest day of your life? From what time, think ye, would St. Paul date his happiness, but from the hour when he was struck to the ground in his way to Damascus, and when he received the first communications of converting grace? And if you could tell the time of your first awakening, with the same accuracy as the laying of the first stone of the temple was marked (the 24th day of the 9th month), you would be able to say with certainty, From that day God has blessed me.]
Supposing, then, that we have been truly converted to God, let us,
II.
Consider the anticipations which we are authorized to indulge
Here the promise in our text indisputably belongs to us: From this day will I bless you. Again I say, that we are no longer to estimate the Divine favour by the measure of our success in temporal things. True indeed, If we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all earthly things, so far as they will conduce to our welfare, shall be added unto us [Note: Mat 6:33.]. But that which we are authorized to expect, is, that God will bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus [Note: Eph 1:3.]. God will give you,
1.
The communications of his grace
[These shall be suited to your necessities [Note: Jam 4:6.], and sufficient for your wants [Note: 2Co 12:9.] ]
2.
The manifestations of his love
[No words can express what is implied in these. But he will manifest himself to you as he does not unto the world [Note: Joh 14:21-23.], and shed abroad his love in your hearts [Note: Rom 5:5.], and give you the witness of his Spirit, as the earnest of your everlasting inheritance [Note: Eph 1:13-14.] ]
3.
A meetness for glory
[His whole work of grace will he carry on within you [Note: Php 1:6.], till you are transformed into his image [Note: 2Co 3:18.], and fully prepared for his glory [Note: Php 1:9-11 and Col 1:9-12.] ]
Address
1.
To those in whom the foundation of Gods spiritual temple is not yet laid
[You, alas! have no part or lot in these promises: and a far different portion have you to expect. If ye will be intent only on your own business, and be concerned only to please yourselves, how can you expect that God should bless you? Consider, I pray you, whether they who serve not their God can reasonably hope for the same portion as his faithful servants shall enjoy [Note: Mal 3:18.]. I will be content that you shall judge this matter for yourselves. But, O! be persuaded, ere it be too late, to follow the convictions of your minds, and to turn unto God with your whole hearts.]
2.
To those who are building up themselves a temple for their God
[To you assuredly is the promise made, that God will bless you, both in time and eternity. Be more and more diligent, then, in the work in which ye are engaged. Be coming daily to Christ, as lively stones, to be built up on him as the living foundation-stone [Note: 1Pe 2:4-5.]; and God will make you the habitation of his holiness for ever and ever [Note: Eph 2:19-22.].]
3.
To those who think this distinction visionary
[If such there be among you, put it to the proof. God himself challenges you to this [Note: Mal 3:10.]. Make but the experiment fairly, and I have no fear of the issue.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Hag 2:19 Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless [you].
Ver. 19. Is the seed yet in the barn? ] Jerome rendereth it, in germine, in the sprouting, or spirting, as they call it, and so far enough from the harvest; and yet farther, if yet in the barn, and not put into the ground. Nevertheless, for your diligence in building God’s house, I assure you, in the word of truth, that you shall have a very great increase, a plentiful harvest.
From this day will I bless you
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Is the seed . . . ? The answer is no. It was sown.
yea, as yet = howbeit, though at present. See notes on p. 618, and App-58.
from this day = from this very day. Referring to their obedience in building
you. Omit; and take “bless” absolutely.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
as: Hab 3:17, Hab 3:18
from: Gen 26:12, Lev 26:3-13, Deu 15:10, Deu 28:2-15, Psa 84:12, Psa 128:1-5, Psa 133:3, Pro 3:9, Pro 3:10, Zec 8:11-15, Mal 3:10, Mat 6:33
Reciprocal: Lev 19:25 – General Lev 26:4 – the land Deu 28:3 – in the field Deu 28:8 – storehouses Job 39:12 – gather Psa 65:11 – thy paths Pro 21:29 – he directeth Son 2:13 – fig tree Isa 65:23 – shall Eze 36:9 – General Joe 2:14 – and leave Zec 8:12 – the seed Zec 8:13 – ye shall
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hag 2:19, He reminds them that not only did the corruption of the past years cause them to be sent into captivity, but since that event their neglect of duty had brought about these shortages in their crops down to that very date. Notwithstanding all this, if they will begin NOW to serve the Lord faithfully, they will be blessed.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2:19 Is the {l} seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless [you].
(l) He exhorts them to have patience, and to remain until the harvest came, and then they would see God’s blessings.