Haggai 2:6-10

Haggai 2:6 (KJV)

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;

 

Verse 6 begins a prophecy of the coming Messiah which is why the temple must be built and not left to rot on the foundation of Solomon’s temple.  God had made many affirmations of the coming permanent covenant but he now proclaims that one more time he is going to shake the heavens, earth, sea, and dry land.  This means that what is about to happen will affect every aspect of both the physical heavens and the physical earth.  When he gave the covenant at Sinai, the mountains and the earth underneath shook but this was only a local event.  What is to happen will affect the entire earth and its population.

 

Haggai 2:7 (KJV)

And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

 

The word “chemdath” for “and the desire” is a singular word and it is a prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word is used 16 times in the Old Testament and never once translated plural or as the modern versions have translated it, rather interpreted it, as material goods or precious items. The “desire of all nations” is a continued fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Genesis 12:2-3 (KJV) And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: {3} And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.   How will the Lord shake all the nations?  It is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ which shook the Roman Empire when he was born and he shakes all nations of every generation including ours.   The Lord will fill the temple with glory which is a reference to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ will be coming to the temple in Jerusalem when he is born into this world.  Malachi 3:1 (KJV)   Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.   No other person in history has had an effect upon each nation of the world as the Lord Jesus Christ has. 

 

Haggai 2:8 (KJV)

The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.

 

There may have been an objection in that the Lord wanted to use silver and gold to adorn the temple as was the case in Solomon’s time.  God was reminding them that all the gold and silver in the world belonged to him and he could use it for whatever he deemed necessary and any amount he wanted to use.  Psalm 24:1 (KJV) A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.  God even allowed silver to be used to betray the Lord Jesus Christ unto the religious leaders by Judas.

 

Haggai 2:9 (KJV)

The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

 

Even though the temple of Zerubbabel would have been smaller than the temple of Solomon which was adorned with all kinds of gold and silver, the reason that this temple will be greater than the former is because the Lord Jesus Christ is going to visit it in Jerusalem.  Then coupled with that will be the promise of the Lord that the temple will yield peace.  Not the temporal peace of the world because just 37 years after Christ visits the temple, Jerusalem along with the temple will be razed.  The peace which will be offered will be the eternal peace which comes through the Lord Jesus Christ.  The peace is not worldly peace but peace with God which before was impossible through the keeping of the law and therefore unattainable except through the covenant of grace.  Romans 5:1 (KJV) Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:  That peace was associated with the temple because in the latter days of its existence the Lord came to it and through his sacrifice on Calvary peace with the Father was now possible.

 

Haggai 2:10 (KJV)

In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

 

Haggai now brings another message which was akin to his first message concerning those who were disobedient.  This message came about two months after his other messages.  This time frame would correspond to late November and early December.

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