Haggai's messages consisted of a call to rebuild the temple of God, encouragement to do so, and promises from Yahweh (God) that He would bless them if they completed it. His audience was the people, Zerubbabel, who led the first contingent of Jews out of the Babylon captivity, and Joshua, son of Nun and the man Moses appointed his assistant. He encouraged the people to stop wasting time and build the temple. They were convinced that it was not the right time to build the temple. However, their response was obedience.

Haggai's last message was more specifically for Zerubbabel from God. It said that God is going to overthrow the nations of the earth, and, when he does, He will make Zerubbabel a ruler under Him.

Before Haggai' first message, the people were suffering because God was not blessing them. Their relationship with God was not close. They had lost their faith, had a bad attitude and were putting off His work of building the temple. They were disobedient....

They were not growing enough crop to live and did not have much to eat or drink. They had little clothing and not enough money. Haggai explained to them that Yahweh was working against them because they preferred going to their own homes and resting rather than building God's temple.
They had just returned from captivity and were economically and physically suffering hardship. They wanted to re-establish their economy and income before working on the temple.

Haggai thought they had their relationship with God backwards and should work on His temple so He would bless them in other ways.

God did not need a temple as much as He knew the people needed to build it to get their relationship with Him straight. At the time there was a drought which caused farming to fail as well as the economy. This, said Haggai, can be corrected by building God's temple.

Bibliography

The NIV Study Bible. (1985). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan.