Haggai 2:10 Commentary and Bible Study

Haggai’s third and fourth prophecy are given on the same day, two months after the second. This third prophecy is very intriguing. It is about separation from sin, and loyalty to God; it is about the impossibility of sinful man doing anything for God that is perfect and holy. God must build his own church; he must establish his own kingdom. These are complex verses that may puzzle the reader. The point of what Haggai is going to say here is that the transmission between holy and unholy, that is, between clean and unclean, is only in one direction. The prophet appeals to the instincts of the priests. They dealt with the law of God on a daily basis and had an understanding about the point he now wants to make, so that both of the answers they give are to be understood as correct. ‘Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh’ – the priest, that is – ‘in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy?’ These are consecrated things in the temple. Will the holiness or the ceremonial cleanness of the thing touched transfer to the meat, so that if the priest carries the meat and brushes against some consecrated item, will that consecration transfer to the meat? ‘No’, say the priests. They are not answering from their own opinion; they are answering according to the law of Moses. No, ceremonial cleanness cannot be transferred from one thing to another. There was no efficacy in the Old Testament worship. It was symbolic of spiritual things. That was symptomatic of the entire Old Testament dispensation. A temple built with hands had this inherent limitation: that it lacked efficacy. That was true of the Mosaic tabernacle, of Solomon’s temple, and of this second temple. The builders of this temple were sinful men, and it was built with human hands. Hebrews contrasts this earthly temple (Hebrews 9:24) with the heavenly temple built without hands (Hebrews 9:11).