Wholehearted devotion to the furtherance of his pure worship brings a restoration of God’s favor and his promised blessings. This important fact was emphasized by God himself as he went on to say to the priests whom Haggai had questioned:

18. Before this day of Haggai’s prophecy, what had been the condition of the remnant economically, and why would Jehovah now bless them from this day forward?

¹⁸ “‘But now, please, set your heart on this from this day and forward, before there was the placing of a stone upon a stone in the temple of Jehovah,

THE DAY OF RETURN TO PROSPERITY

19. From that twenty-fourth day of Chislev the Jewish remnant could make a test of Jehovah in what regard, and what did His law covenant allow for them to expect?

¹⁹ It was now the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (Chislev), and by that time there should have been increasing autumn rains, even some snow appearing on the mountaintops. That day the faithful Jewish remnant had begun work anew at the temple foundation, as if they were laying the foundation all over again. (Ezra 3:8-12)