The text says that they obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet.
Shouldn’t some of these words be flipped around? As in, they obeyed the words of the Lord their God, and the voice of Haggai the prophet
? After all, whose actual voice
did they hear? Haggai’s. And whose words
or message did they hear and obey? The Lord’s. Well, Scripture puts it this way to make it very clear that Haggai’s words,
Haggai’s message, was the Lord’s voice.
The Reformer John Calvin writes, For the word of God is not distinguished from the words of the Prophet, as though the Prophet had added anything of his own.
1 In other words, the leaders and the remnant obeyed, because they knew Haggai was an inspired prophet who spoke God’s words. They knew that the Lord their God had sent him.
So they responded to the Word. They listened carefully to the rebuke and admonition from the Lord; they humbled themselves; they changed their priorities and put God’s house first.2
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.