The People Obey
The leaders and the remnant respond to Haggai's word with obedience and reverent fear, recognizing that the prophet speaks for the LORD. Into that obedient fear comes a brief but decisive promise: 'I am with you.' The LORD then stirs the spirits of Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the whole remnant, so that inward renewal produces outward action. They come and begin the work on the house of the LORD on a clearly dated day, showing that the prophetic call has become visible obedience in history. The paragraph closes the chapter with the community newly reoriented around God's presence and house.
T12hen Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD. 13Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, delivered the message of the LORD to the people: 14So the LORD stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and began the work on the house of the LORD of Hosts, their God, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.