Albert Barnes Commentary Haggai 1:2

"Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, This people say, It is not the time [for us] to come, the time for Jehovah`s house to be built." — Haggai 1:2 (ASV)

Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say— Not Zerubbabel or Joshua, but “this people.” He says not, “My people,” but reproachfully “this people,” as, by their actions, disowning Him and so deserving to be disowned by Him. The time is not come, literally, “It is not time to come, time for the house of the Lord to be built.” They could still sit still; the time for them “to come” was not yet, for not yet was the “time for the house of the Lord to be built.”

Why it was not time, they did not say. The government did not help them; the original grant by Cyrus (Ezra 3:7) was exhausted. The Samaritans hindered them because they would not acknowledge them (amid their mishmash of worship, “worshiping,” as our Lord tells them (John 4:22), they know not what) as worshipers of the same God.

It was a bold excuse, if they said, that the 70 years during which the temple was to lie waste were not yet ended.

The time had long since come when, 16 years before, Cyrus had given command that the house of God should be built. The prohibition to build, under Artaxerxes or Pseudo-Smerdis, applied directly to the city and its walls, not to the temple, except insofar as the temple itself, from its position, might be capable of being used as a fort, as it was in the last siege of Jerusalem. Yet a building of the size of the temple itself, apart from outer buildings, could scarcely be so used. The prohibition did not hinder the building of stately private houses, as appears from Haggai’s rebuke.

The hindrances also, whatever they were, had not begun with that decree. The death of Pseudo-Smerdis had now, for a year, set them free, if they had had any zeal for the glory and service of God. Otherwise, Haggai would not have blamed them.

God, knowing that He would bend the heart of Darius, as He had that of Cyrus, required the house to be built without the king’s decree. It was built in faith that God would accomplish what He had enjoined, although outward circumstances were as adverse now as before. And what He commanded, He prospered (Ezra 5–6).

There was indeed a second fulfillment of 70 years, from the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar 586 BC, to its consecration in the 6th year of Darius 516 BC. But this was through human willfulness, prolonging the desolation decreed by God, and Jeremiah’s prophecy relates to the people, not to the temple.

“The prophet addresses his discourse to the chiefs (in Church and state) and yet accuses directly, not their listlessness but that of the people, both to honor them before the people and to teach that their sins are to be blamed privately, not publicly, lest their authority be injured and the people incited to rebel against them. It also shows that this fault was directly that of the people, whom he reproves before their princes, so that the people, being openly convicted before them, might be ashamed, repent, and obey God. However, indirectly, this fault touched the chiefs themselves, whose office it was to urge the people to this work of God.” “For seldom is the prince free from the guilt of his subjects, by either assenting to them, winking at them, or not coercing them, though able.”

Since Christians are also the temple of God, all this prophecy of Haggai is applicable to them.

“When you see one who has lapsed, thinking and preparing to build through chastity the temple which he had before destroyed through passion, and yet delaying day by day, say to him, ‘Truly you also are of the people of the captivity, and say, The time is not yet come for building the house of the Lord.’ Whoever has once resolved to restore the temple of God, for him, every time is suitable for building; and the prince, Satan, cannot hinder, nor can the enemies around. As soon as you yourself are converted and call upon the name of the Lord, He will say, Behold Me.”

“To him who wills to do right, the time is always present; the good and right-minded have the power to fulfill what is to the glory of God, in every time and place.”