Summary:

The Jews in Haggai’s day were discouraged that the new temple wasn’t as big as Solomon’s temple, so God planned to glorify it by shaking the nations down for their money to finance it, the way a bully shakes down a classmate (2:6-8) When the mountain of the Lord’s kingdom is established (Isa. 2:2) the nations “shall flow unto it” (v.6). Isaiah mentions their “silver and gold” because God plans to shake them into bringing it to Israel (Isa. 2:21). But an earthquake alone usually doesn’t separate men from their money, so God will shake heaven and earth (Hag. 2:6 cf. Joel 3:16,17).

But how would it encourage the Jews in Haggai’s day to know that God didn’t plan to glorify their temple until after they died? Well, doesn’t it encourage you to know that God is going to glorify the temple of your body until after you die if the Rapture doesn’t come first (Phil. 3:21,22)? If that doesn’t encourage you, you need to grow up (Eph. 4:15) and stop looking for instant gratification in this life.

But if all that’s true, why’d Haggai say the Lord would glorify the temple in “yet a little while”? Well, that phrase can mean a few moments (Lu. 22:56-59) or weeks or months (John 7:33) or thousands of years (Heb. 10:37), as it does here in Haggai 2 (cf. II Pe. 3:8).

God will only have to shake the nations “once” because that shaking will remove the world’s kingdoms (Heb. 12:26-28). After that their kingdoms will become the Lord’s kingdoms (Dan. 2:44; Rev. 11:15) and there will no further need to shake the nations.

“The desire of nations” (Hag. 2:7) is not Christ, it is money, and all the things money can buy (Eccl. 6:2). A stream of it will come to Jerusalem so steadily they’ll never be able to close the gates (Isa. 60:7-11). This will go on for eternity in New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:22-25).

It is wrong when a bully shakes down a classmate for his lunch money, but it isn’t wrong for God to shake down the nations, for their money is His (Hag. 2:8). By virtue of the fact that God is the Creator of all things, He owns all things (Ps. 50:10-12). Men don’t know that now, but they will when it comes time to glorify the temple, just as the Jews knew when it came time to build Solomon’s temple (I Chron. 29:14-16). In the same way, the money you give to the Lord is His! Just like the body you give Him (Rom. 12:1 cf. I Cor 6:19,20). If you don’t give Him the body He owns, you’re not rendering to God what is God’s (Mark 12:17).

Solomon was the richest man who ever lived, how could the new temple be grander? It’ll be glorified with the combined wealth of everyone on earth (Isa. 2:7).

But how could God call the millennial temple “this latter house” when “this house” in the context is temple in Haggai’s day that was destroyed in 70 ad? Well, if the house of your body is destroyed, you have a resurrection body (II Cor. 5:1). It’s so sure that you’ll have it that God says you “have” it now, since He promised it to you (cf. Rom. 4:17). But your resurrection body will be your body (cf. Job 19:26,27), just far more glorious (I Cor. 15:37,38). Well, if God can call your resurrection house “your” house, even after it is destroyed, He can call the millennial temple “this house”, even though that house was destroyed in 70 ad.

All of this is symbolic of the difference between the Old and New Covenants. Just as the glory of the new temple will exceed the glory of the old temple, the glory of the New Covenant will exceed the glory of the Old (II Cor. 3:7-10). The Law was glorious, it upheld the high, perfect standards of God. But it condemned everyone, for no one could keep it. But the New Covenant of grace exceeds the Old Covenant in glory because it upholds the high standards of God, but gives believers perfect righteousness because of the blood of the New Covenant! The Law has no glory at all by comparison with that, just as Solomon’s temple will have no glory at all compared to the glory of the millennial temple.

Finally, God says “in this place will I give peace” (Hag. 2:9). That land that has known less peace than any other spot on the planet throughout history will not only have peace, it will be the source of peace for the rest of the world.

Summary:

It had been 70 years since Solomon’s temple was destroyed, but there were some “left” in Israel (v.1) who remembered it. We know they were discouraged that the new temple wasn’t as big because they “wept” when they saw the foundation (Ezra 3:12).

They were also discouraged by the king’s order to cease building the temple. But Zechariah, who was raised up with Haggai to encourage the Jews (Ezra 5:1,2), predicted the “mountain” of Persia’s king would flatten before Israel’s governor Zerubbabel (Zech. 4:7) — and he did!

But Zerubbabel didn’t level that mountain by lifting his hand against the authority of the king. He just reminded him that a previous king had ordered the temple built, and when the king checked, he found that it was true (Ezra 6:1-3), and knew that that command couldn’t be altered (Dan. 6:8).

That’s why Zechariah went on to predict that Zerubbabel would finish the temple (Zech. 4:8,9). But for that to happen they would have to learn not to despise “the day of small things” (v.10), and instead “be strong” (Hag. 2:4). That’s the secret to overcoming discouragement!

“The people of the land” (v.4) is a phrase that appears 52 times, and refers to the land of Canaan. Jews and Arabs fight over which people are the people of the land, but God promised it to Abraham and his seed “for ever” (Gen. 17:8).

But Abraham took his time about going there (Gen. 12:1), and by the time he got there, Satan had filled the land with his people — and Moses called them “the people of the land” three times (Gen. 23:7-13). Moses knew God promised the land to Abraham, but he knew God recognized the “squatter’s rights” of the Canaanites. People who occupy a land have legal right to it until the rightful owner evicts them.

But Joshua served an eviction notice when he led God’s people into Canaan and God enforced His promise to Abraham to give him the land. After that, the phrase “the people of the land” referred to the Jews — until they were taken away captive to Babylon. Then some new squatters moved in, and we know God recognized their rights because He called them “the people of the land” (Ezra 4:4; 10:2,11).

The land still belongs to Israel, but God won’t enforce His promise to them until the Lord returns, any more than He’ll enforce His promise that Jews should rule the world until then. So until then, we should be concerned with who owns the Jews’ hearts, not who owns their land (Rom.10:1).

By the way, Haggai called the Jews “the people of the land” at the same time Ezra called the Canaanites by that name to remind them they are the true owners of the land and had the right to build a temple on it. Plus, this chapter is a type of the kingdom. The chapter began on the day of Tabernacles (2:1 cf. Lev. 23:39), a type of the kingdom. It was the last of Israel’s feasts, like the kingdom is the last thing on their program. It’s called the feast of “ingathering” (Ex. 23:16), and that’s how the kingdom will start (Mt. 24:31).

God’s command to “be strong” was not for them to defy the king’s order, but to be strong in faith (cf.Rom. 4:19,20 cf. Josh. 1:6). To be strong and know that the king’s order wouldn’t be overturned by their might or power (Zech. 4:6,7) but by God. But the people would have to shout grace to the headstone (4:7), i.e., the cornerstone of the temple (cf. Ps. 118:22). The word “shout” should remind you of how some “shouted” when the temple foundation was laid (Ezra 3:11-13). It was their shouts of praise and thanksgiving that would bring the foundation forth to a temple (Zech. 4:7). Grace is God doing for us what we can’t do for ourselves, and that’s what their shouts were asking God to do — overturn the king’s order. Shouts also brought down Jericho’s walls (Jer. 6:5-20), God doing it for them!

Summary:

Most of the time when preachers talk about the Jews it is in a negative way, and there is nothing wrong with this. God recorded their sins “for ensamples” for us (I Cor. 10:11), and if preachers don’t use those examples, they can’t give us the “admonition” we need. So we should point out their sins as faithfully as we point out the sins of the Corinthians and other Gentiles. But we should also give the Jews credit when it is due, and it is due in Haggai 1:12! And when everyone in Israel obeyed God, from the governor down to the people, it was a type of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Zechariah also prophesied at that time (Ezra 5:2), and he gave another type of the kingdom. He tells how God told him to put two crowns on the high priest (Zech. 6:10,11), but high priests were only supposed to wear one (Ex. 39:27-30). Why two? The only other men in Israel to wear a crown were kings (II Ki. 11:11,12). But kings weren’t allowed to be priests and priests weren’t allowed to be kings! Saul lost his kingdom that way (I Sam. 13:9-14). So why would God tell Zechariah to put two crowns on the high priest? He was acting out a prophecy (cf. Ezek. 24:16-24) that he was about to give (Zech. 6:12,13). Christ will be a king and a priest in the kingdom, and Zechariah was acting that out. He says the Lord will build the temple (Zech. 6:13), so if the Jews at that time rebuilt the temple, they would be acting out their part of this prophecy of the kingdom!

They feared the Lord (1:12) because of the judgments that were already falling on them (1:6). They took Haggai’s advice and began to “consider” (1:5) that the last time they persisted in disobedience they ended up in Babylon for 70 years. Of course, grace believers think they needn’t fear God because He won’t chasten us like that, but Paul says otherwise (II Cor. 7:1). We should be afraid to grieve the Spirit who has sealed us to the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30).

It’s for your own good. When Christ will be both the political leader and spiritual leader of the world in the kingdom, it will be heaven on earth. Well, Christ is already your spiritual leader. If you make Him the king of your life, you can experience a little bit of heaven on earth right now!

Any prophet who ever delivered a message from God was a messenger of the Lord, but only Haggai is called that (1:13). That’s because he was a messenger “in the Lord’s message,” which was “I am with you.” That was God’s main message for Israel, so the message was delivered by the messenger.

But God was only with them if they were with Him (I Chron. 15:2). And they didn’t start building the temple till Verse 14. So how could God say He was with them in 1:13? What proof did He have they were with Him? Well they resumed work on the temple (1:14) 21 days after Haggai told them to go gather the wood (1:1 cf. 1:8). That means they must have gathered the wood in those 21 days. That’s how they “obeyed” in 1:12, and how God could say He was with them.

God “stirred” them (1:14) as he did Cyrus (II Chron. 36:22,23). He stirred him by naming him centuries before he was born and predicting he’d build the temple (II Chron. 36:22,23). When Cyrus saw that, he knew Israel’s God was the true God, and knew he’d better do what His Word said! In other words, God stirred him up using His Word, and that’s how He stirred the Jews in Haggai’s day as well. Haggai and Zechariah preached and got them stirred up.

It’s a pastor’s job to get people stirred up, so if you’re not feeling stirred up about the things of the Lord, get to church! You may know the Word well, but it’s the pastor’s job to stir you up about the things in the Bible you already know (II Pe. 1:12,13). Peter stirred them up even though they were “established in the present truth.” The present truth then was the New Testament, but today we need to be established in the truth of the Old Testament, the truth of the New Testament, and the truth of the grace message (Rom.16: 25,26), and let the pastor stir us up about it all!