The people’s obedience was not simply outward, external. They were obeying not simply because they want the heavens to open and give water, yet had no interest in a relationship with the opener of the heavens.1 The end of Haggai 1:12 says otherwise: And the people feared the Lord.
The imagery here is actually even richer than that. Literally, The people feared before the face of the Lord.
That helps us understand what the problem had been. The people did not fear the Lord. That is, they had known what he had said—return home, rebuild the temple
—but they lived as though he was not looking. They acted as though God had turned his face away from them. So they did not make his house their priority. But now, after listening to the word of the Lord through Haggai, they become sensitive to the fact that God was watching them, that his face was turned toward them (see further (Deuteronomy 5:5; Deuteronomy 13:11; Deuteronomy 17:13; Deuteronomy 19:20; Deuteronomy 21:21). They now fear him. And that’s an attitude that is more than simply reverence before the Lord. It is the sort of fear that recognizes God’s justice.2 They see their sin, they know they deserved the discipline of exile for their sin, their persistent unfaithfulness, and their prioritizing their own homes over the Lord’s. Now they were startled wide awake by the voice of God,
3 and they know they need to receive his word as the highest authority for their life. They know they must live coram Deo, before the face of God.
Fear in the presence of the Lord, in response to the word of the Lord.
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.