The parable of the holy and the unclean.
I. THE LETTER OF THE PARABLE. Directed by Jehovah, Haggai proposes two questions to the priests.
1. Concerning the law of communicated sanctity. Supposing the case of a man carrying in the skirt of his garment holy flesh, i.e. flesh of animals slain in sacrifice, and with his skirt touching bread, pottage, wine, oil, or any meat, the prophet desires to be informed whether the holiness which according to the Law (Le 6:27) was imparted to the skirt extended further so as to reach also anything with which the skirt might come in contact. To this the priests properly answer, "No."
2. Concerning the law of legal defilement. Stating a contrary case, that of a person defiled by having himself touched a dead body (Le 21:11; Numbers 19:16), Haggai asks whether contact with such a person would render any of the above articles unclean, and is promptly answered that according to the Law it would (Numbers 19:22).
II. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE. "So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord."
1. Any sanctity possessed by the nation could not pass beyond themselves. The sanctity which they possessed arose from the fact of their having an altar in Jerusalem, which had been built immediately on their return from Babylon, and of their maintaining in connection therewith the festal and sacrificial worship appointed by the Law of Moses (Ezra 3:1-6). Yet this could not transmit itself to the soil so as to render it holy and cause it to become fruitful in corn and wine and oil, notwithstanding their disobedience in neglecting the building of the temple. On the other hand:
2. Whatever defilement was on the nation would affect all that belonged to the nation. But the nation, through its disobedience in neglecting to build the temple, was defiled, since according to Jehovah "to obey is bettor than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22). Hence their uncleanness rendered all about and around them unclean. In particular, it put the land beneath a curse which made its harvests scanty.
III. THE APPLICATION OF THE PARABLE.
1. To the days before the building of the temple was resumed.
2. To the days since the temple foundation was laid. Not at the first (Ezra 3:10), but then, under Haggai, in the four and twentieth day of the ninth month of the second year of Darius (Ezra 5:2; Zechariah 8:9). As yet there was, comparatively speaking, no seed in the barn, and only a small supply of vines, figs, pomegranates, and olives, since the preceding harvest had been bad, so that no evidence as yet appeared that, as regards their condition, any change for the better had begun, nevertheless they were confidently to anticipate that from that day forward Jehovah would bless them.
Learn:
1. The limitations of personal religion.
2. The greater contagion that belongs to sin.
3. The blindness of the human heart to Divine judgments.
4. The certainty that piety will be rewarded.
5. The ability of God to do beyond what reason warrants or sense expects.