The post-exilic prophetic books of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi are set in times of great adversity. God's people are minnows in the vast Persian Empire, and the promises of the earlier prophets for a glorious restoration of Jerusalem seem far from their experience. These books, from beginning to end, restate God's intention to establish his glorious kingdom, and explain what this means for the lives of his people. For Haggai and Zechariah, the...