Haggai 2:6–9

Verse 6 raises another interesting matter. It was especially relevant in the day Haggai prophesied, but it is just as important today. "For thus says the LORD of hosts" — a sentence appearing many times in this book — "Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land." The people were living under the decrees of a man who had seized the kingdom by cunning, pretending to be the rightful king. But about these outward conditions the Lord of hosts makes known that He is in full control of them all.

First comes the announcement, "I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land." Have these violent shakings happened? Kingdoms have been shaken in politics, and the earth has often been shaken physically and in other ways. Even so, this prophecy is still to be fulfilled... Critics object to this view because this shaking of everything is to come in "a little while." So they apply it to the nearer political events of that period. But prophecy often foreshortens the future. Besides, the little while is not man's little while, but God's. With Him a thousand years is as a day. Also, in the political events after the Jews returned from Babylon, not all nations were involved.

In these words the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews gave a free rendering of a prediction first spoken by the prophet Haggai. He quoted them to stress the word "once." Let us note it well! "Once more" — then of course, since no further shaking will take place, it will be the final thing. It will be an act of God. So the next verse of the chapter explains: "This phrase, 'Yet once more,' indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain." So we know how everything that sin has undermined will end.

Others think the desire of all nations will be the Lord Jesus Christ, and surely they are right. Examine Haggai 2:6-9, and that will appear very plain. The words "The Desire of all nations shall come" stand between the Lord of hosts shaking all things in judgment and His filling the house of the Lord, the Temple, with His glory. That glory will surpass even the scene at the first dedication by King Solomon, when the priests could not stand because of the overwhelming glory.

Now Christ personally can hardly be spoken of as the "desire" of all nations, since when He appears in glory, so that every eye sees Him, "all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him"... But the nations have always desired such peace and fruitfulness, such prosperity, and quietness and assurance for ever, as is predicted in Isaiah 32:15-18. These very desirable things will only come to pass and be enjoyed when the Lord Jesus comes again.

In the day of the remnant the world empires looked very imposing, and the work of the remnant in connection with the house of God appeared to be very insignificant. But whatever the outward appearance might be, in fact the remnant were engaged with a work that will last. That work will be displayed with all the glory of the Lord when the mightiest kingdoms of the earth have crumbled to dust and passed away.

We are brought to what is forever stable and beyond all risk of change or decay. Unless our souls are truly settled in this truth, we cannot serve God acceptably. Our thoughts and hopes will be taken up mostly with things that belong to the earth, which will soon be shaken.

A lack of appreciation was clear among the people of God in Haggai's day. Their own low state of soul kept them from seeing how low the house of God had sunk. So God sent the prophet to wake their interest and to revive their appreciation of the things of their God. He is saying in effect, "You may not think much of My house, but I will establish all that I have said in relation to it, and I will fill it with My glory." The fulfilment of this looks on to a future day. But it also involves the coming of the One blessed Person who alone could bring it about. So the "desire" must take in the Messiah.

The question is, who is the desire of all nations? It deserves a closer look, because critics have worked hard to explain away the Messianic meaning of this sentence. Some read it as "the desirable things of all nations", that is, costly treasures brought in to beautify the temple. But the Hebrew is a strange phrase. The subject is a noun, feminine and singular; the predicate is plural and masculine. The word "chemdath" — desire — is the same one used in Daniel 11:37, the desire of women. Word for word it would read: "And the desire of all nations, they shall come."

I believe that "the desire, or object of desire, of all the Gentiles" is as literal and, what matters more, more true, as far better suiting the grandeur of the verse than that which some would force on us, "the precious things," meaning the gold and silver, etc., which are distinctly named afterwards. It must be borne in mind that the most literal version is not necessarily the most faithful or best.

It is fair to ask in what sense the Messiah could be the desire of all the nations. We need not say He is their desire in the sense of something they feel inside. But in Himself He is the precious treasure of all nations, and one day they will own Him as such. In the past or the present, which of them has prized Him as they ought? He is not only the hope of Israel; He will bring true riches and blessing to all other nations. The world can never be fully happy until He comes. I see no more difficulty in this phrase than in what Malachi says to the Jews: "The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight" (Malachi 3:1). Jews and nations alike have been far from feeling the worth of Jesus as they should.

You can hardly call Christ Himself the "desire" of all nations. When He appears in glory, and every eye sees Him, "all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him" (Rev. 1:7). Yet the nations have always wanted the peace and fruitfulness, the prosperity, and the quietness and assurance for ever that Isaiah 32:15-18 promises. These very desirable things will only come, and be enjoyed, when the Lord Jesus comes again.

First comes the announcement, "I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land." Have these upheavals happened? Kingdoms have been shaken politically, and the earth has often been shaken in physical and other ways. Yet this prophecy is still not fulfilled. The Holy Spirit bears witness to it in the New Testament, for we read in Hebrews 12:26-28... This settles the question: the prophecy is future.

When the shaking of all the nations comes according to Haggai's prophecy, we shall see men in their utter misery, in the complete failure of all their efforts to put things right, discovering that what they want — peace, righteousness, prosperity, plenty — will never come through an earthly dictator... The nations will at last discern that only the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the Prince of peace, can bring in their desire, that desire being purified and lifted through the sorrows of the great tribulation. Their desire will be the Son of God at last, and in Him they will find every desire amply fulfilled.

It weakens the truth to speak of "the second temple", as the rabbis in their unbelief did. Scripture, as we may see in Haggai, is careful to hold in faith the unity of God's house. It is "the LORD's house" while it lies in ruins (Hag. 1:9), no less than when it is magnificent. So even in the grand future, "I will fill this house with glory."

That "wood" would stand in contrast to the silver and gold of verse 8, "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, declares the LORD of hosts". Why did He not give it to them? He could have given them all the gold of Solomon again if He had so desired... If the power of those days is not seen now, that is not because God could not bring it in. He could do it at any moment. But if God wants us to go on with what looks small, you can be sure He will support us. And we will discover how precious our present place is, because it makes room for Christ.

The hostility of Antiochus IV, the corrupt patronage of Herod the Idumean, the blasphemous claim of the antichrist to be God — none of them destroys God's title and rights. It stays His house all through, whatever the unfaithfulness of His people, and however complete Satan's triumph looks.

The Lord of hosts declares that He owns the silver and the gold; all of it rightfully belongs to Him. When Christ was born, wise men from the east came and laid their costly gifts at His feet. In the same way, the nations will one day come and offer their treasures to the Lord in His temple at Jerusalem. Christ, the desire of all nations, will receive their homage. They will delight to bring their finest treasures to adorn and serve His house, and to glorify His name. By doing this they will confess that the silver and the gold are His.

Both the nations and the Jews have despised Him, but He will then come as the centre of everything desirable — at once its giver and the one who draws it out. He draws out for God's glory what people value most. But what is all that wealth, which is Jehovah's and will then be owned as His, next to the glory itself?

Nabal claimed full and absolute right over everything God had given him, calling it "my bread," "my water," "my flesh." God gave him the chance to serve His anointed, the future king; but he had no faith, and he lost everything, even his own life. God alone has absolute right over all things. He says, "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine," yes, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." Man is only a steward, and must give account of everything to God.

Money and the things of this life are called "the mammon of unrighteousness" because the rights of the rightful Owner of all are refused. God says, "The gold and the silver are Mine," but how much of it is poured out in selfish pleasure, and how little of it is used for His work and glory!

The Lord may use His people as His instruments to supply His servant's needs. Even so, the servant must always look to the Lord alone... He has said: "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine" (Haggai 2:8), and "every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills... the world is mine, and the fullness thereof" (Ps. 50:10, 12). So it is a small matter for God to meet the needs of His servants, as many have gladly proved over the years.

It is important to read the ninth verse in the right way, as our Authorized Version is incorrect. The Hebrew does not say, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former." It says, "The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former." The house of course is the temple. The visible glory once lived in the former house. Greater glory is coming, on the day when He appears. With His coming and that restoration, He will give peace.

The ordinary rendering is not only weaker, but confusing. It gives the idea that we now hear of one house, now of two. The true version makes verse 9 agree completely with verse 3... The balance is restored at once when we hear the prophet say, "The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former … and in this place I will give peace." It is the same house in God's mind, as it is the same place. It may be defiled, or even torn down to its foundations and rebuilt again and again. Still it keeps the mark of oneness that the inspiring Spirit stamps on it.

Solomon's Temple was destroyed long ago, and other buildings have taken its place. But Haggai 2:9 teaches us that in God's sight the house has been one all along... Even the Temple that Herod built to glorify himself, the Lord Jesus called "My Father's house" (John 2:16). Perhaps even more striking, the Temple where the Man of Sin will sit carries the name "the Temple of God" in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 and Revelation 11:1.

This assures us that the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem; Ezekiel even gives its plan and measurements. That rebuilt house — one in God's mind with the house the exiles were building — is the house that will be filled with glory. God has always filled HIS house with glory. He filled the tabernacle put up in the wilderness (Ex. 40), the temple in the kingdom (2 Chr. 5:14), the church at Pentecost (Acts 2); and the last house built on earth will be no exception. But what is the "glory"? It is the Lord's own presence — the sign of which was the cloud... For the glory of the Lord is the display of what He is — whether seen with the eyes or seen by faith — the sum and excellence of all His attributes.

God will fill it with more glory at the end than at the beginning, and the peace of the LORD Himself will have its home there. This will happen in the last days. He who will fill it with glory has indeed come. Yet even while He was making eternal peace for our souls, the world was in such a state that He had to say to the people, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." When He has shaken all nations, He will come in His glory and set peace in the earth.

Some give the name Jerusalem as 'the foundation of peace,' others as 'the possession of peace.' Sadly, its history has been anything but peaceful. But Haggai 2:9 is still to be fulfilled: "in this place I will give peace" — surely pointing to the meaning of the name.

Their present building may be far poorer than Solomon's, but it is linked to one that will surpass Solomon's. The cloud of glory may not fill their present temple, but it is linked to one that even greater glory will fill... Haggai treats the temple of their "day of small things" (Zech. 4:10) as one with the glory-filled temple of the coming kingdom. So he lifts their present work to a very high level.