In Chapter 2, Haggai comes a second time to Zerubbabel and Joshua, saying,

"Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?"

In verses 4-5 he encourages the people to be strong and persevere and in verses 6-9, he promises a great change coming. The Lord will bring about this change because an external church, a church that is just performing rituals, is of no use.

Only a church that leads people to do well in their lives, and in in their thoughts, because that is what the Lord says, is of any use. Once this truth has been falsified, or made “unclean” there is not much left of the church (verses 10-14).

Although there are abundant truths in the Word, in a church that is only external they are not found, because there is no use for them. In spite of the peoples' hardships, no one has bothered to question what they might be doing wrong.

From verse 18 Haggai’s prophecy becomes triumphant. "The seed is yet in the barn and the fig tree and the vine will come." The promise in verse 6 is repeated, "I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land", i.e. He will overthrow all those who follow their own doctrine and their own false ideas.

The Lord will bring another church that is not the reconstructed ancient church or its representation, but a church built from a new knowledge of the Lord, and a new set of people. This, though not soon, will be the coming of the Lord himself. Zerubbabel is used to represent this as a shining signet, because, though governor, he was not of the Jewish people.