It seems to me that the minor prophets could all have been given one book, a couple of pages each, and go. Or really, a decent editor could have cut everything down to a couple of pages total. Then again, that goes for the major prophets. Pretty much all summarized by “you guys strayed from the path, I’m not happy, I’m going to rain down doom, but then I’m going to forgive you, prop you back up, and then go destroy your surrounding enemies who caused you to stray in the first place.” To my mind, God could skip to the last step if he really wanted to just solve the problem. But no, he’s got to make a whole show out of it, teach everyone a lesson. Haggai was a 6th century or so prophet, whose book is written in the third person, likely by one of his students, and is basically set in the rebuilding phase of the above – God urgently demanding that the Temple be rebuilt and he start receiving sacrifices and worship again.
- God appeared to Haggai, pointed out that the fields are ripe and blooming again, the land has been restored, and it’s all due to his intervention in the doom and destruction of said land (no mention being made that he’s the one who did the dooming and destructing). And hey, tell people to start collecting the materials for the rebuilding of the Temple. It’s time.
- God tells Haggai to talk to the elders, who might still remember the original Temple. Then he’s off on a tangent about how all the gold and silver is his. And then Haggai is off talking to the elders on a discussion of, well, transmutation – if something is not sacred, then nothing a holy person can do will make it sacred, but if something is sacred, the mere touch of someone who is unholy, or wicked, will change it to not sacred. And with that, we end yet another minor prophet’s book.