Haggai not only mentions the obedience of the civic and religious leaders, but he also announces that all the remnant of the people
obeyed his warning. The meaning of that expression is debated. Does it refer to the tiny portion of Israelites who returned to Jerusalem out of the large number that was taken into exile?1,2 That would make an artificial distinction between the returned exiles and those who stayed home during the exile.
So does all the remnant
refer to all of Israel living in Jerusalem at the time, both the returnees and those who stayed during the captivity?3 This is possible. But what seems most likely is that it refers to the faithful, repentant Jews.4 God’s people as a whole have been judged for their unfaithfulness, to the point that when the Lord refers to them earlier, in Haggai 1:2, he calls them these people,
instead of my people.
The relationship was broken. Yet God does not reject or completely obliterate his people; he disciplines them for their sin. But now they are called the remnant.
The term points to discipline and deliverance, judgment and mercy. The remnant are particularly those who saw their sin of unfaithfulness to the Lord with regard to the temple. And they saw God’s justice in disciplining them. And they are living proof that God never wipes out his people.5 He calls to faith, he calls for a return to him in obedience. Those who respond in faith are those who are spared, preserved. They are the remnant. They are in the line of the believing remnant, the true Israel, among the nation of Israel (see Genesis 47:7; Judges 5:13; 2 Kings 19:4, 2 Kings 19:30–31; 2 Chronicles 30:6;Ezra 9:8, Ezra 9:14–15; Nehemiah 1:3; Isaiah 10:20). For indeed, not all who descend from Israel belong to Israel (Romans 9:6).6
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.