Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth;
On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month the prophet received a second word, and it was for one man only: Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah. It says nothing about his building work, and everything about the day God will shake heaven and earth and overturn its thrones.
One writer starts from the promise that closed the message before this one.
This final prophecy came through Haggai to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah. It came on the same day as the message just before it — the twenty-fourth day of the month. The last words of the earlier message were, "From this day on I will bless you." Now the blessing of the remnant in the land became at once prophetic of the restoration and blessing of Israel in the kingdom. But this involves two things, which the prophetic scriptures reveal everywhere: the appearing of the Messiah, and the judgment of the nations.
No event since has matched what this verse announces. One writer makes that the key.
Zerubbabel has been dead more than twenty-three centuries, and yet this shaking of the nations has not come. What could be clearer? The great event foretold here is the overthrow of all earthly thrones. It comes when the Messiah, Zerubbabel's descendant, establishes His rule in righteousness over the nations of the world.
Another writer turns to Hebrews, and then to what people build without God.
This does not refer to the first coming of our blessed Lord. Writing to the Hebrews, the apostle applies the passage to the future (Heb. 12:26-27). That future time is the one just before the appearing of Christ, when He comes with His saints to set up His kingdom on the earth. What a contrast to the thoughts of man! He works to make things last and stay steady, and dreams as he works of a time of peace and plenty — but without God.
The shaking is not the end of the story. It clears the ground for someone else to rule.
This final message from the LORD's messenger is entirely about the future. It is addressed only to Zerubbabel, the governor, a son of David. He tells this leader that the heavens and the earth will be shaken, as in verse 6. When that day comes, the throne of the kingdoms will be overthrown. The power of the kingdoms of the nations will be destroyed. For in that day the falling stone, which pictures the second coming of Christ, will put an end to Gentile rule… He will be made a signet. Among those nations the signet ring was a mark of honour. Monarchs gave it to their chief ministers, handing over all authority to them. So this pictures the Lord Jesus Christ receiving rule and authority from God.
The man named in the verse is not the whole of what is meant.
The second prophecy returns to the shaking of all things… It encouraged the people at the time it was given, a time when they greatly needed it. Yet in naming Zerubbabel, this prophecy looks to One who will be the true seed of David and the heir of his crown according to God, when God shakes the heavens and the earth.
Another writer asks how far the promise touched the governor himself.
The last verse of the chapter surely had some application to the man himself. Kingdoms would be overthrown, as predicted in Daniel 11, but he would be like a signet ring, by which God would establish His decrees. How this worked out for Zerubbabel we do not know. But we believe the Spirit of God had in view not so much a temporary exaltation of this man, as the permanent exaltation of the One he pictured — our Lord Jesus Christ.
God will overturn the thrones Himself. That freed the builders from trying to do it for Him.
In the face of all this power of evil, the remnant had only to obey the word of the LORD and in simple faith occupy themselves with the work of the LORD. It was no part of their business to oppose the world, or overthrow its power, or try to set right its wrongs. They are taught that the LORD, in His own time, will deal with all the evil of the world.
One writer counts how often God signs this promise.
Three times in one short verse we find "declares the LORD," or "declares the LORD of hosts." He stoops to the weakness of His people, and so lays an unshakable foundation for their faith.
- Shaken timing. The word came on the day God promised blessing. That blessing at once reached further — Israel restored, the Messiah shown, the nations judged.
- Shaken future. Zerubbabel died long ago and no such shaking followed. So the event is still ahead. Hebrews 12:26-27 treats it as future too.
- Shaken thrones. The shaking clears away Gentile rule. A king gave his signet ring to the man he put in charge. So the ring pictures Christ receiving all authority.
- Unshaken King. Naming the governor points past him to the true seed of David. How far the honour touched Zerubbabel himself, we are not told.
- Unshaken builders. God Himself will deal with the world's evil. So the weak were free to get on with His work, steadied by a promise He signed three times.
and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride therein; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.
Haggai's last message came on the same day as the one before it. It lifts the eyes of a small group of returned exiles far past their own moment, to a day when God Himself pulls down the governments of the world. Three questions follow: when does this happen, which powers are meant, and what should God's people do until then?
The promise was made to a named man who has long since died, and that fact settles the timing. Nothing in history has matched what is described here.
Zerubbabel has been dead more than twenty-three centuries, and yet this shaking of the nations has not come. What could be clearer? The great event foretold here is the overthrow of every throne on earth. Then the Messiah, Zerubbabel's descendant, will set up His righteous rule over the nations of the world.
"The throne of kingdoms" is not one nation among others. It is world rule itself.
For now the throne of the earth is in the hands of the Gentiles. They have corrupted it and used it for their own evil purposes. It has certainly become a throne of godless tyranny and oppression — one that exalts man and shuts out God. The crucifixion of Christ has already declared its true nature, for the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ.
Behind the human rulers stands another power, and its end is fixed:
We know who sits on that throne — the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan. He will be thrown into the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:2-3). The strength of the kingdom, moreover, is in the hands of the beast and the false prophet, who will be thrown alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20).
Commentators differ on the exact target. One reads it as the nations that gather against Jerusalem, not the final world ruler:
In my view, the judgment in verse 22 is not the judgment of the throne of the beast. It is the judgment of the nations who will come up against Jerusalem in that day. Everything that sets itself up against Jehovah's rights at Jerusalem will be overthrown. God established those rights according to His own purposes, and they were bound up with the house the people were building.
Another sets it later in the sequence:
This is the judgment of the living, or at least the part of it that concerns the nations that gather against Israel. It comes after the destruction of the Beast, along with the kings and armies under him, whom the Lord destroys when He appears.
Notice how the fall happens. God raises no army. The armies turn on themselves.
"...overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother." Often in Bible history the enemies kill one another, as Jonathan saw (1 Samuel 14:20), and Gideon (Judges 7:22), Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:23), and Egypt (Isaiah 19:2)... It seems God will deliver Israel this same way in a future day. As to our enemies we are to "fear not" (2:5). God will clear the scene, but He will also fill it.
The tearing down makes room. God's judgment on the Gentile kingdoms is the ground on which He sets up David's throne.
By His gracious power Jehovah will set up the throne of David on the judgment of the Gentile kingdoms... Zerubbabel was only a governor, yet he clearly pictures Christ as King. He was David's son and heir in his own day, so this was all the more fitting. The Messiah alone will fully set up the kingdom of Jehovah here below and keep it forever, while the earth lasts.
The people who first heard this lived under those very powers. The verse divides the work: God takes the overthrowing, and their part is something else.
Those powers used their strength without mercy, then as now, to crush anyone who stood in their way. Faced with all this power of evil, the remnant had only to obey the word of the LORD and, in simple faith, get on with the LORD's work. It was no part of their business to oppose the world, to overthrow its power, or to try to put its wrongs right. The LORD tells them that in His own time He will deal with all the evil of the world.
- "I will." Every action in the verse belongs to God — He overthrows, He destroys, He brings the riders down. He gives His people no part in it.
- The throne. What falls is world rule in Gentile hands, with the devil behind the throne. Its rulers showed its true character when they gathered against Christ.
- The sword. The armies collapse by killing each other, as enemies have often done before. So the word to the fearful is "fear not."
- The signet. God clears the scene in order to fill it. He sets up David's throne by His own power, and Zerubbabel pictures Christ as King.
- Our part. Not to oppose the world or fix its wrongs, but to obey God's word and get on with His work until He acts.
In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, will I take thee, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant, saith Jehovah, and will make thee as a signet; for I have chosen thee, saith Jehovah of hosts.
Haggai's book closes with a private word to one man: Zerubbabel, the governor, a prince of David's line. Why does a prophecy about falling empires end by naming a signet ring, and what does that promise mean for a man who died long ago?
Haggai's four messages move through rebuke, encouragement and warning. The last one is different, and it reaches beyond the man it names.
We have had what we may call the word of rebuke, then the word of encouragement, and then the word of warning. Now comes the word of exaltation, spoken directly to Zerubbabel, who was a prince of David's line, as Matthew 1:12 shows. The last verse of the chapter surely had some application to the man himself. Kingdoms would be overthrown, as Daniel 11 predicts, but he would be like a signet ring, by which God would establish His decrees. We do not know how this worked out for Zerubbabel. But we believe the Spirit of God had in view not so much a temporary exaltation of this man, but the permanent exaltation of the One he pictured: our Lord Jesus Christ.
The reason for looking beyond Zerubbabel is a matter of dates.
Zerubbabel has been dead more than twenty-three centuries, and yet this shaking of the nations has not come. What could be clearer? The great event foretold here is the overthrow of all thrones on earth, when the Messiah, Zerubbabel's descendant, will set up His rule in righteousness over the nations of the world.
The picture comes from royal courts, where it carried an exact meaning.
Zerubbabel, the son of David, is a picture of Christ, the Son of David. He will then receive the throne of His father David. He will be made a signet. Among those nations the signet ring was a mark of honour. Kings gave it to their chief ministers, handing over full authority to them. So the Lord Jesus Christ is pictured as receiving rule and authority from God.
The picture also answers an earlier word of judgment on Judah's king.
These verses point again to the future, when all nations will be shaken. Then God will take the true seed of David — still called "Zerubbabel my servant" here, a picture of Christ as the prince of the house of David — and make Him as a signet. Coniah, or Jeconiah, king of Judah, was unfaithful, and he was like a signet torn off God's right hand (see Jeremiah 22:24). Christ is the opposite. He is the signet on God's right hand, sealing all God's purposes for the nations and for His chosen people Israel.
The order matters. Kingdoms fall first; then God sets up David's throne.
Jehovah's gracious power would establish the throne of David after He had judged the Gentile kingdoms. The picture of His special closeness and choice looks ahead to "that day." Zerubbabel was only a governor, yet he is clearly the picture of Christ as King.
The reason given for the honour is not achievement but God's choice — and that choice has a long history behind it.
Adam failed in the trust God gave him. So did Noah, and David, and everyone else God made responsible. But from the beginning God had in view not Adam, nor David, but Christ. God's choice rested on Him. His thirty-three years on earth proved that choice right. God's heart will take special delight in honouring that blessed One, who as a Man has fully justified God's choice.
That honour is His own, not only a benefit for others.
The coming of Christ will not only mean blessing for Israel and the nations. It will also be the occasion of His own glory. He who was crowned with thorns will be as Jehovah's signet. He will be glorified, for Christ will carry out all that God does, and it will all be for Him.
The faithful few faced a power of evil far bigger than themselves. This message told them whose job it was to put the world right.
Faced with all this power of evil, the remnant had only to obey the word of the LORD and, in simple faith, give themselves to the work of the LORD. It was no part of their business to oppose the world, or overthrow its power, or try to put its wrongs right. They are told that the LORD will deal with all the evil of the world in His own time.
The words that anchored Zerubbabel are not reserved for leaders.
Thrones and kingdoms would be destroyed, but Zerubbabel would be as a signet on the Lord's hand, "for I have chosen you." Today the weakest believer can say: "It is not that I chose You, for, Lord, that could not be; this heart would still refuse You, but You have chosen me."
- Chosen — the promise rests on God's choice, not on Zerubbabel's record. From the beginning God had Christ in view, not Adam or David.
- Signet — a king gave this ring to his chief minister to hand over full authority. Christ receives rule and authority from God.
- Reversed — Coniah was the signet torn off God's right hand. Christ is the signet kept on it, and He seals all God's purposes for Israel and the nations.
- After the shaking — God judges the Gentile kingdoms first, and then sets up David's throne. That is why the promise still waits.
- Meanwhile — God's people are not called to overthrow the world's power. They obey His word, do His work, and leave the wrongs to Him.