Haggai sees the hand of the Lord behind their futility. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away.
Everything they did ended in failure, it withered, and the Lord says it was because of him. Their unsatisfying harvests can be directly tied not to dumb luck or chance or Mother Nature, but to the hand of the Lord. He is the Lord of hosts, the might and the power to be reckoned with in the affairs of everyday life. He is the agent of prosperity and adversity. He blew their achievements away. He gave the crops a second winnowing with his breath. So fragile and temporal are man’s achievements that the mere breath of the Lord can wipe them out (see Ezekiel 22:20–21; Isaiah 40:7).
9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.