Haggai was a prophet who, together with the prophet Zechariah, prophesied to the Jews who had returned from their captivity in Babylon to their homeland. Some 50,000 people had made their way from Babylon back to Jerusalem, and Haggai and Zechariah became the mouthpiece of God to those returning people, and both of these prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, saw beyond the immediate situation, and saw of a coming age when the Messiah would advance His Kingdom through the church.
They did prophecy to the immediate, which was the people were to rebuild the temple, to rebuild the city, but they also looked beyond that. They saw something happening in the future. They saw a renewed church, and they saw a revived society. The immediate was to point to and symbolize that which was to come, and so the book of Haggai and its message is relevant to us here today. It’s relevant to this local church, it’s relevant to the society of the city, in which we find ourselves.