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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter - Chapter 2 ch. 2:1+9 ch. 2:10-20 ch. 2:20-23 The
Promised Glory Of The New House (ch. 2:1 - 9) Verse
1 begins with “on the twenty first day of the seventh month”.
This would be our September 21. In the rest of verse 1 and in
verse 2 the Lord gave Haggai another word to speak to Zerubbabel,
Joshua, and the rest of the remnant. In
verse 3 God through Haggai asks a few questions. Basically he’s
addressing the older people who were still alive who would have seen the
original temple that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed.
He destroyed the temple in 586 BC and now it was around 520 B. C.
Sixty six years would have transpired.
The temple was finished in 515 B. C.. In
verse 4 God tells everyone to be strong and to work, that is, do the
work of the Lord to build the temple.
The reason why God told the Jews to be strong and go to work was
because there was no comparison to what they were building with the
former temple. That fact
alone would have been depressing for those who were old enough to see
the glory of the original temple. In
verse 5 God reminds them of the covenant he made with Verse
6 is interesting for those interested in prophecy.
God says that “in a little while” he’ll shake the heavens
and earth, the seas and the dry lands.”
The words “a little while is interesting”.
The obvious question is, “how long is a little while?”
I think we can safely say that it’s been more than twenty five
hundred years and there’s been no such shaking.
Therefore, “a little while” in God’s eyes is a long time in
our thinking. The
words “little while” reminds me what our Lord tells John in Rev.
1:1. He said that He would
show John those things that “would soon take place.”
Like the “little while” in the last verse, one might ask,
“how long of a time is ‘soon. "Because of the word “soon” in Rev. 1:1, some people believe
that some, part, or even much of the prophecy of Revelation has already
taken place. But if we
interpret “soon” as we interpret “a little while” here in
Haggai, all of the book of Revelation might still be in the future.
In
verse 7 God continues by telling the Jews that He “will shake all
nations”. This is clearly
seen in the book of Revelation. Then
God says the “desired of all nations” will come.
That’s the Messiah. That’s
Jesus. Then God says that
“I (God) will fill this house with glory.”
The question should now be asked, “what house is God talking
about?” If
you take this verse as literal as possible, “this house” clearly
refers to the temple that these people are building.
Now we have a problem. The
house that was now being built was totally destroyed in 70 A. D. and is no
longer. So how can God’s
glory be in this house, if it’s no longer in existence.
Most prophetic futurists believe that there will be a rebuilt
temple in In
verse 8 God says that the silver and the gold belongs to Him.
That’s the silver and the gold that is in, or will be in the
temple. In
verse 9 God says that the glory of this present house will be greater
than the glory of the former house.
The present house is the house the Jews were presently building.
The former house is the house, the temple that Solomon built.
Yet once again, has this ever happened with this rebuilt temple.
In later years the temple fell into disrepair again, and was
actually fixed up by a Gentile ruler, that is, Herod.
Herod’s temple was in existence when Jesus was on earth.
Some might say that the glory of Herod’s temple was greater
than the glory of Solomon’s temple, but if it was, it certainly was
not the glory of the Lord, and that’s what the glory spoken of hear
means. Verse
10 ends by God saying that “in this place, I will grant peace.”
Peace will not come to this earth until Jesus returns and rules
from the temple in Jerusalem. Blessings
For Defiled People (ch. 2:10 - 20) Haggai
says in verse 10 “on the twenty fourth day of the ninth month…”
This would be Nov. 24 in our calendar. In
verses 11 to 13 Haggai asks two questions concerning the matters of the
Law that would make the point he wants to make concerning the Jews and
their waywardness. The first
point concerns consecrated meat. If the meat is consecrated and touch
some other food after it was consecrated, does the other food become
consecrated because it gets touched by a consecrated piece of meat.
The priests answer by saying “no”.
The other food does not get consecrated just because it comes in
contact with consecrated meat. The
second question asked on a matter of the Law concerns a person touching
a dead animal. The question
is asked that when a person touches a dead animal, does that person get
defiled by coming in contact with the dead animal?
The priests answer “yes”. The person does get defiled when
they touch a dead animal. In
verse 14 God then says that this is the way His people are.
They are defiled and because of that the offerings they bring to
God are defiled. Of course,
they are defiled because they have defiled themselves with their contact
with ungodly people. The same can be true today in a New Testament
sense. We defile ourselves
when we become worldly in our thinking and in our practices. We
need to distinguish between uniting ourselves with the world, following
its way, and participating in what it does with mere association with
those of the world. Jesus
spent much time with the individual sinner, as we should.
On the other hand, He did not give Himself to worldly thinking.
When speaking of the world, we should think in terms of secular
systems and philosophy, not individuals.
Once
again, in verse 15 God asks The
words “this very day” appear in verse 15.
Also
in verse 15 we see the specific thing that God wants the Jews to
consider. They were to think
about the time before one stone was laid in the foundation of the temple
that they were presently building. They
had the foundation laid, but shortly after that, they stopped work.
Verses
16 and 17 seem to suggest just how far back in Jewish history they were
to consider. God speaks
about at time when they went to gather crops and only got half of what
they expected to get because He had struck the work of their hands with
blight, mildew, hail and other such tragedies.
This would have to have been before the days the Jews were exiled
to Babylon. The
last phrase in verse 17 says, “yet you did not turn from me”.
This tells us why God struck such tragedies on Israel. These bad things were
meant to get their attention in order for them to repent and turn to
Him, but they didn’t. They
did not view the bad times as corrective measures from their God. In
verse 18 we see the words “give careful thought” twice.
We also see a specific date – the 24th day of the
ninth month. On this
day the foundation of the temple would be completely laid. Verse
19 shows the present state of the Jews.
They were lacking, but as a result of them beginning to do the
will of their God, from that very day He would begin to bless them once
again. It’s clear, that
God is not obligated to bless us when we fail to live according to Him,
but He will bless us when we walk in His ways. Zerubbabel,
The Lord’s Signet Ring (ch. 2:20 - 23) In
verses 20 and 21 God tells Haggai to prophesy to Zerubbabel, the civic
leader of the Jews. Haggai
is to prophesy that God will shake the heavens and the earth. It is
clear to me that this is a future event.
The heavens and the earth have not be shaken as we see in the
book of Revelation. In
verse 22 God says in the day in which He shakes the heavens and the
earth, He’ll overthrow all the foreign nations.
The word “foreign” tell us that God will shake all nations of
the world, except Israel. The word “foreign” is
in relation to Israel. It’s been used this way
all along throughout the minor prophets.
He’ll destroy and crush their
armies and weaponry of war. Haggai
closes his prophecy in verse 23. He
says that at that day, that is the day described above, He’d make
Zerubbabel like His signet ring. It is obvious that Zerubbabel won’t
be around at the end of this age, so the reference to Him is prophetic
of someone else, and that someone else is Jesus. Thus the prophecy of
Haggai ends with an end time prophecy concerning Jesus.
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