Haggai 2:9

"'The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former' says the Lord of hosts; 'and in this place I will give prosperity,' says the Lord of hosts" (Haggai 2:9).

Comment:

In the six years I've been taking Bible questions on this website, you are the first to ask about a passage in Haggai. So thank you for bringing me to yet another prophet! Haggai's entire brief book can be dated to the summer of 520 BCE. He was sort of the Ralph Nader of his day, giving five public speeches that summer urging the king (Zerubbabel) and high priest (Joshua—no, not that Joshua) to fulfill their commitment to the Lord and to the people. Specifically, he wanted the king to rebuild the temple, as he'd been promising to do for 18 years. And he wanted the high priest to clear out the 'cultic practices' that were being allowed—and even assimilated into their Hebrew faith.  

Partly as a result of his effective speeches, work was begun on the temple, and it was finished and dedicated five years later. And some religious practices based in cultic rituals were eliminated. Haggai believed that once those two goals were achieved the country would grow in size and strength, and the kingdom of David would be restored. 

For us, I think this passage is a call to do the work necessary to achieve our spiritual purpose. We are, in a sense, exiles ourselves, living this experience of duality and believing it to be somehow separate from our spiritual Truth. We're not here to amuse and distract ourselves with the illusions of mortal life. We have a spiritual goal to achieve—a temple to build—and, to paraphrase Jesus, we must be about our Father's business.