Haggai uses the phrase in a little while
to describe the timing of God’s coming intervention. The expression literally means it is a little,
and in context it points to a near future in God’s timetable rather than on a human calendar. Scripture often speaks this way about the coming day of the Lord—it is always presented as imminent, always close at hand, always something God’s people are to watch for expectantly (2 Peter 3:3–11).1
The long stretch of time since Haggai’s prophecy does not make his words false. The prophets often saw the future the way a hiker sees a mountain summit: it appears just beyond the next ridge, only for new valleys and ridges to appear once the crest is reached. The nearness was real—it kept the hiker moving forward—even though the full distance was longer than it first appeared. So it is with God’s promise. In a little while
reflects his perspective, not ours. The phrase is meant to stir hope, sustain perseverance, and keep God’s people alert. The New Testament speaks the same way about the return of Christ. His coming is always seen as near,
not because the New Testament writers could plot it on a timeline, but because immediacy is part of how Scripture teaches us to live: ready, watchful, and confident that God’s future is already on the move toward us.2
6 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.