Haggai was a post-exilic prophet. What does that mean? It means that he was a prophet AFTER the Jews returned from their 70-year captivity in Babylon. He was a contemporary of Ezra. In chapter 1, he makes sure that the people of Judah who have returned from captivity realize their blatant disobedience to rebuild the temple. They laid the foundation, but suddenly stopped working and have not made any effort to work on the temple for 16 years. They now have nice houses to live in but the temple of God is still in ruins. As we take a look back at Ezra we discover that they had a good excuse for stopping the work, but no excuse for not starting back. If a person were only to read Haggai, one might tend to be overly harsh on these people. Ever “thought” you knew the whole story, but found out that you did not?