Haggai 2:14
Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean. Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.
Just as uncleanness spreads by contact, so this people and this nation stood unclean before the Lord, and every work of their hands and all that they offered there was unclean. The declaration lays bare the heart and makes plain that God marks all the works of men. That uncleanness lay in hearts still corrupted by sin, and holiness is not passed on by mere touch of or nearness to holy things or holy people. No round of religious services, no offerings, no good works could by themselves render them acceptable to God or wash them clean.
Because of that uncleanness He cut short their increase, so that a heap looked to yield twenty measures yielded only ten, and the press looked to yield fifty vessels yielded only twenty, and He smote all the labor of their hands with blasting and with mildew and with hail, yet they did not turn to Him. But from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day the foundation of the temple was laid, He pledged blessing to them even while the seed was yet in the barn and the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the olive had not yet brought forth, for He who can diminish can also increase and bless. The chapter therefore presses that the house of the Lord is not to be left to last, but the building of a place of worship is to be made a first concern. The soul itself must be made clean by the grace of Christ received through faith and obedience to the truth, in an inward reformation and restoration wrought by the Holy Spirit.