2:10 Another prophecy came from the Lord on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of 520 B.C. (Kislev 24, December 18). During the two months between this prophecy and the former one (vv. 1-9), Zechariah began his ministry in Jerusalem (Zech. 1:1).
2:11 Almighty Yahweh instructed Haggai to request a ruling from the priests. The priests were the official interpreters of the Mosaic Law, and what follows deals with matters of ceremonial defilement.
2:12 The question was, if someone carries consecrated food in his garment and touches other food of any kind with the garment, will that food become holy? Holy meat was meat set apart for a particular sacrificial purpose (cf. Lev. 6:25; Num. 6:20). The answer was, no it would not become holy. The meat carried in the garment would make the garment holy, but the holiness would not be communicated beyond the garment to anything else (cf. Exod. 29:37; Lev. 6:27; Ezek. 44:19; Matt. 23:19). The people were apparently thinking that since they were working on the holy temple all that they contacted and did became holy.26
2:13 A second question was, if someone who has become unclean, for example by touching a corpse, touches food of any kind, will the food become unclean (cf. Lev. 22:4-6; Num. 19:11-16)? The answer was, yes it would become unclean.
2:14 Haggai then made an application of this principle to the people for the Lord. Their sacrifices were unacceptable to God because they were unclean. They should not think that contact with something holy, such as the temple they were working to complete, made them acceptable to God. They had previously been unclean, so their present sacrifices were unacceptable to God.
2:15-16 The people needed to give careful consideration to something again (cf. 1:5, 7). They needed to remember that before they began to obey the Lord by rebuilding the temple (1:12) they had been disobedient to the Mosaic Covenant (cf. 1:5-11). The Lord's punishment for their covenant unfaithfulness had been greatly reduced harvests. Their grains had decreased by 50 percent and their grapes by 60 percent.
2:17 The Lord had used hot winds, mildew, and hail to smite the people and what they had planted, but they still did not repent (cf. Amos 4:9).
2:18-19 The people were to notice something on the day this prophecy reached their ears, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. They were to notice that from the day they started to rebuild the temple, their hardships had continued (cf. 1:14-15). They still suffered shortages of staples such as seed, grapes, and olives, and luxuries such as figs and pomegranates. However, the Lord revealed that He would now bless them, beginning that very day, the twenty-fourth of the ninth month.
This oracle explained why agricultural blessing had not begun immediately after the people resumed reconstruction on the temple. Their present dedication and obedience did not wipe out their previous covenant unfaithfulness and its punishments. That punishment had to run its course, but now, as of the day of this prophecy, God would begin to bless the people with better harvests.
God will bless His people for their obedience, but sometimes He will not erase the punishment that previous sins have made necessary. Sin always brings death (Rom. 6:23). Sometimes that punishment must run its course before blessing can begin.
