Haggai 2:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is the date of this message, Haggai 2:1. It came on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, about a month after the builders had started working again, from the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. They had already made some progress. Those who are earnest in God’s service will receive fresh encouragement from him as they need it. When we get the work moving, God will help keep it going.

The message was sent to the same people who had received the warnings in the previous chapter, Haggai 2:2. The encouragements come to the same people who had been convicted and humbled by God’s word, because the same word that wounds also heals. It was spoken to Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the rest of the people, the same ones who had obeyed the Lord’s voice (Joshua 1:12) and whose spirits God had stirred up to do it (Joshua 1:14). Comfort is given to those who had already shown obedience.

The people were discouraged because they could not build a temple like Solomon’s. When the foundation was laid, many wept because this house could not match the former one in size, beauty, or splendor (Ezra 3:12). The glory of this house, compared with the earlier one, seemed like nothing at all, Haggai 2:3. It had been about seventy years since Solomon’s temple was destroyed, so some who remembered it were still alive. They could still recall the gold covering, the precious stones, the beauty of the porch, and the tall pillars, and they naturally felt the gap between the two houses.

This kind of comparison weakened the builders’ hands. God is pleased when we serve him honestly and as well as we can, even if our gifts are limited. But proud hearts often refuse to be satisfied unless we can do as much as people with greater ability. Older people can also discourage newer work by praising the past too much. The better path is not to say the former days were better than these (Ecclesiastes 7:10), but to thank God that there is any good at all in these days.

Even so, the Lord told them to be strong, Haggai 2:4. Zerubbabel, Joshua, and all the people were not to give way to this discouragement. They were to do the best they could, even if they could not do as much as they wished. If the leaders kept up a good spirit, the rest of the people would likely follow. Those who work for God should put forth real effort and keep going with hope that the end will be good.

The Lord gave them strong reasons not to fear, Haggai 2:5. He said, “I am with you,” Haggai 2:4, and that was reason enough to be brave. He had said this before, but such promises need to be repeated so they sink deep into the heart. God’s presence as the Lord of hosts is enough to quiet our fears and help us through every difficulty in duty. The Jews may have had enemies against them, but they had the Lord of hosts with them to defend them and stand up for them.

He was with them because he kept his promise. His covenant, his solemn binding promise, could not fail. Even when he disciplined them for their sins, he would not break faith with them. He was also with them by his Spirit, the Spirit of prophecy, which had long dwelt among them. When he first formed them into a people, he gave them his good Spirit to teach them (Nehemiah 9:20). That same Spirit had stirred them to leave Babylon (Ezra 1:5) and now to rebuild the temple (Haggai 1:14). As long as God’s Spirit remains at work among us, we have reason to be encouraged, because God is with us to work for us.

They would also have the Messiah, the promised Savior, among them soon, Haggai 2:6-7. All the prophets pointed to him, and Haggai does so here in a special way. The coming of Christ is described as being still a little while away. The Old Testament church had one more stage to travel, and then the kingdom of the Messiah would come. Believers were to keep waiting in faith and patience, because the One who was coming would surely come and would not delay.

His coming would be marked by a great shaking, Haggai 2:6. God says he will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land. This points to the setting up of Christ’s kingdom in the world. God would again act as he had when he brought Israel out of Egypt, when he shook Mount Sinai with thunder, lightning, and earthquakes, and made a way through the sea. He would also shake things when Christ suffered, with the darkened sun, the quaking earth, and the tearing rocks. He would shake things at Christ’s birth too, when Herod and all Jerusalem were troubled (Matthew 2:3).

This shaking shows that old things would be moved out of the way so that Christ’s kingdom could stand. Idols would fall, nations would be stirred, and the powers of kingdoms would be changed, Hebrews 12:27. The removal of shaken things makes room for what cannot be shaken. God often shakes the nations in order to settle his church more firmly.

[2.] The result will be general satisfaction. “He will come, the desire of all nations.” That means he is desirable to all nations, because in him all the families of the earth receive the best blessing. Good people in every nation, who had any knowledge of the Old Testament promises about him, longed for him and looked for him. Balaam, in Moab, spoke of a star that would rise out of Jacob, and Job, in Uz, spoke of his living Redeemer. The gathering of devout men from many lands in Jerusalem (Acts 2:5) showed that people were expecting the Messiah’s kingdom around that time.

All nations that are brought to Christ and taught in his name call him, and will call him, their whole salvation and their greatest desire. This great title of Christ seems to point back to Jacob’s prophecy, that “to him shall be the gathering of the people” (Genesis 49:10).

[3.] The house they were now building would be filled with glory so fully that its glory would be greater than Solomon’s temple. The enemies of the Jews mocked them and looked down on the house they were building, but they could bear that well when they knew God would fill it with glory. It is God’s special right to fill a place with glory, and the glory that comes from him truly satisfies. It is not empty show. Moses’ tabernacle and Solomon’s temple were filled with glory when God took possession of them in a cloud, but this house would be filled with glory in a different way.

First, they were not to worry because this house would not have as much silver and gold as Solomon’s temple did (Haggai 2:8). God does not need silver and gold to make his temple beautiful, because, he says, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine.” All the silver and gold in the world belongs to him, including what lies hidden in the earth, what is stored in people’s treasuries and banks, and what moves through trade and business. It all belongs to the Lord. Even every coin bears his image as well as Caesar’s. So when gold and silver are given to honor God, that does not add anything to him, because it was his already.

When David and the leaders gave large sums for the house of God, they admitted, “It is all yours, and from your hand we have given it to you” (1 Chronicles 29:14, 1 Chronicles 29:16). God does not need sacrifices either, because every animal in the forest is his (Psalm 50:10). So if we have silver and gold, we must use them to honor God, because they are already his. We are only using what he has entrusted to us. If we do not have silver and gold, we must honor him with what we do have, and he will accept us, because he does not need our gifts. All the silver and gold in the world already belong to him. The earth is full of his riches, and so is the great and wide sea.

Second, they could take comfort in this, that even with less gold, this temple would have more glory than Solomon’s, “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former” (Haggai 2:9). This was not true in outward splendor. In its later years, this temple was beautified and enriched by Herod, and the disciples admired its stones and buildings, how fine they were (Mark 13:1). Still, it was far below Solomon’s temple. Besides, the Jews admit that several of the special signs of God’s presence in the first temple were missing from this one, such as the ark, the Urim and Thummim, the fire from heaven, and the Shechinah, the visible cloud of God’s glory.

So we cannot say this latter house surpassed the former in outward glory. It did so in a far greater way, through the presence of the Messiah himself, the Son of God, who was presented there as the glory of his people Israel, visited it when he was twelve years old, and later preached and worked miracles there. He also drove the buyers and sellers out of it. It was necessary for the Messiah to come while the second temple still stood. Since that temple was destroyed long ago, we must conclude that Jesus is the Christ, the one who was to come, and that we should look for no other.

This latter house also had this glory: before Christ came, it was kept free from idols and idolatry, and it was never polluted with those hateful things, as the first temple often was (2 Kings 23:11, 2 Kings 23:12). In that respect, its glory was greater. The purity of the church, and a careful hold on God’s own commands, are much greater glory than outward beauty and splendor.

After Christ came, the apostles preached the gospel there, even “all the words of this life” (Acts 5:20). Jesus Christ was preached daily in the temple (Acts 5:42). The ministry of righteousness and life through the gospel was far more glorious than the law, which was a ministry of death and condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:9, 2 Corinthians 3:10). The greatest glory is the glory that comes from belonging to Christ and having a share in him. Where Christ is, there is one greater than Solomon. So the heart where he lives, and which he makes into a living temple, is more glorious than Solomon’s temple, and it will be so forever.

[4.] They would also see a comforting end to their present troubles and enjoy the peace of a settled life: “In this place will I give peace, says the Lord of hosts.” God’s presence with his people in his appointed worship secures all good for them. If God is with us, peace is with us.

The Jews under the second temple had so much trouble that this promise must point to the spiritual peace that Jesus Christ purchased for believers by his blood and left to them in his final will and covenant (John 14:27). It is the peace Christ preached as the prophet of peace, and the peace he gives as the prince of peace. God gives peace in this place, and he gives his Son to be our peace (Ephesians 2:14).