Text -- Haggai 2:1-9 (NET)

The Glory to Come

2:1 On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the Lord spoke again through the prophet Haggai: 2:2 “Ask the following questions to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the remnant of the people: 2:3 ‘Who among you survivors saw the former splendor of this temple? How does it look to you now? Isn’t it nothing by comparison? 2:4 Even so, take heart, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord. ‘Take heart, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you citizens of the land,’ says the Lord, ‘and begin to work. For I am with you,’ says the Lord who rules over all. 2:5 ‘Do not fear, because I made a promise to your ancestors when they left Egypt, and my spirit even now testifies to you.’ 2:6 Moreover, the Lord who rules over all says: ‘In just a little while I will once again shake the sky and the earth, the sea and the dry ground. 2:7 I will also shake up all the nations, and they will offer their treasures; then I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord who rules over all. 2:8 ‘The silver and gold will be mine,’ says the Lord who rules over all. 2:9 ‘The future splendor of this temple will be greater than that of former times,’ the Lord who rules over all declares, ‘and in this place I will give peace.’”

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Hag 2:3

Near fourscore years ago.

Wesley: Hag 2:3

The temple built by Solomon.

Wesley: Hag 2:5

Of strength and courage, of wisdom and understanding.

Wesley: Hag 2:6

After many confirmations of the new covenant, one more, remains to be made.

Wesley: Hag 2:6

Tho' above five hundred years, yet this was but a little time compared with that between the promise to Adam and Christ's coming.

Wesley: Hag 2:6

Whether it be metaphorical or literal, it was verified at the time of Christ's coming into the world. After the return of the captivity, by the commotions among the Grecians, Persians, and Romans, which began soon after this time; this was metaphorically fulfilled. And it was literally fulfilled by prodigies and earthquakes, at the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Wesley: Hag 2:7

Which was literally fulfilled in the overthrow of the Persian monarchy by the Grecians, in the civil wars, and succeeding troubles among Alexander's successors, the growth of the Roman power by subduing their neighbours, and their dissentions and home - bred wars.

Wesley: Hag 2:7

Christ the most desirable, to all nations, and who was desired by all that knew their own misery, and his sufficiency to save them who was to be the light of the Gentiles, as well as the glory of his people Israel.

Wesley: Hag 2:7

The first temple had a glory in its magnificent structure, rich ornaments, and costly sacrifices; but this was a worldly glory; that which is here promised, is a heavenly glory from the presence of Christ in it. He that was the brightness of his father's glory, who is the glory of the church, appeared in this second temple.

Wesley: Hag 2:8

The treasures of both: doubt not therefore but I will give enough to build this house.

Wesley: Hag 2:9

In my house, a type of Christ.

Wesley: Hag 2:9

A spiritual, internal, and heavenly peace.

JFB: Hag 2:1

Of the Hebrew year; in the second year of Darius reign (Hag 1:1); not quite a month after they had begun the work (Hag 1:15). This prophecy was very shortly before that of Zechariah.

JFB: Hag 2:3

Many elders present at the laying of the foundation of the second temple who had seen the first temple (Ezr 3:12-13) in all its glory, wept at the contrast presented by the rough and unpromising appearance of the former in its beginnings. From the destruction of the first temple to the second year of Darius Hystaspes, the date of Haggai's prophecy, was a space of seventy years (Zec 1:12); and to the first year of Cyrus, or the end of the captivity, fifty-two years; so that the elders might easily remember the first temple. The Jews note five points of inferiority: The absence from the second temple of (1) the sacred fire; (2) the Shekinah; (3) the ark and cherubim; (4) the Urim and Thummim; (5) the spirit of prophecy. The connection of it with Messiah more than counterbalanced all these; for He is the antitype to all the five (Hag 2:9).

JFB: Hag 2:3

God's estimate of things is very different from man's (Zec 8:6; compare 1Sa 16:7). However low their estimate of the present temple ("it") from its outward inferiority, God holds it superior (Zec 4:10; 1Co 1:27-28).

JFB: Hag 2:4

The greatest strength is to have Jehovah with us as our strength. Not in man's "might," but in that of God's Spirit (Zec 4:6).

JFB: Hag 2:5

Literally, "(I am with you) the word (or thing) which I covenanted"; that is, I am with you as I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt (Exo 19:5-6; Exo 34:10-11). The covenant promise of God to the elect people at Sinai is an additional motive for their persevering. The Hebrew for to "covenant" is literally "to cut," alluding to the sacrificial victims cut in ratification of a covenant.

JFB: Hag 2:5

Or, "and."

JFB: Hag 2:5

To strengthen you for the work (Hag 1:14; Zec 4:6). The inspiration of Haggai and Zechariah at this time was a specimen of the presence of God's Spirit remaining still with His people, as He had been with Moses and Israel of old (Ezr 5:1; Isa 63:11).

JFB: Hag 2:6

Or, "(it is) yet a little while." The Hebrew for "once" expresses the indefinite article "a" [MAURER]. Or, "it is yet only a little while"; literally, "one little," that is, a single brief space till a series of movements is to begin; namely, the shakings of nations soon to begin which are to end in the advent of Messiah, "the desire of all nations" [MOORE]. The shaking of nations implies judgments of wrath on the foes of God's people, to precede the reign of the Prince of peace (Isa 13:13). The kingdoms of the world are but the scaffolding for God's spiritual temple, to be thrown down when their purpose is accomplished. The transitoriness of all that is earthly should lead men to seek "peace" in Messiah's everlasting kingdom (Hag 2:9; Heb 12:27-28) [MOORE]. The Jews in Haggai's times hesitated about going forward with the work, through dread of the world power, Medo-Persia, influenced by the craft of Samaria. The prophet assures them this and all other world powers are to fall before Messiah, who is to be associated with this temple; therefore they need fear naught. So Heb 12:26, which quotes this passage; the apostle compares the heavier punishment which awaits the disobedient under the New Testament with that which met such under the Old Testament. At the establishment of the Sinaitic covenant, only the earth was shaken to introduce it, but now heaven and earth and all things are to be shaken, that is, along with prodigies in the world of nature, all kingdoms that stand in the way of Messiah's kingdom, "which cannot be shaken," are to be upturned (Dan 2:35, Dan 2:44; Mat 21:44). Heb 12:27, "Yet once more," favors English Version. Paul condenses together the two verses of Haggai (Hag 2:6-7, and Hag 2:21-22), implying that it was one and the same shaking, of which the former verses of Haggai denote the beginning, the latter the end. The shaking began introductory to the first advent; it will be finished at the second. Concerning the former, compare Mat 3:17; Mat 27:51; Mat 28:2; Act 2:2; Act 4:31; concerning the latter, Mat 24:7; Rev 16:20; Rev 18:20; Rev 20:11 [BENGEL]. There is scarcely a prophecy of Messiah in the Old Testament which does not, to some extent at least, refer to His second coming [SIR ISAAC NEWTON]. Psa 68:8 mentions the heavens dropping near the mountain (Sinai); but Haggai speaks of the whole created heavens: "Wait only a little while, though the promised event is not apparent yet; for soon will God change things for the better: do not stop short with these preludes and fix your eyes on the present state of the temple [CALVIN]. God shook the heavens by the lightnings at Sinai; the earth, that it should give forth waters; the sea, that it should be divided asunder. In Christ's time God shook the heaven, when He spake from it; the earth, when it quaked; the sea, when He commanded the winds and waves [GROTIUS]. CICERO records at the time of Christ the silencing of the heathen oracles; and DIO, the fall of the idols in the Roman capitol.

JFB: Hag 2:7

Not convert; but cause that agitation which is to precede Messiah's coming as the healer of the nations' agitations. The previous shaking shall cause the yearning "desire" for the Prince of peace. MOORE and others translate "the beauty," or "the desirable things (the precious gifts) of all nations shall come" (Isa 60:5, Isa 60:11; Isa 61:6). He brings these objections to applying "the desire of all nations" to Messiah: (1) The Hebrew means the quality, not the thing desired, namely, its desirableness or beauty, But the abstract is often put for the concrete. So "a man of desires," that is, one desired or desirable (Dan 9:23; Dan 10:11, Margin; Dan 10:3, Margin). (2) Messiah was not desired by all nations, but "a root out of a dry ground," having "no beauty that we should desire Him" (Isa 53:2). But what is implied is not that the nations definitely desired Him, but that He was the only one to satisfy the yearning desires which all felt unconsciously for a Saviour, shown in their painful rites and bloody sacrifices. Moreover, while the Jews as a nation desired Him not (to which people Isa 53:2 refers), the Gentiles, who are plainly pointed out by "all nations," accepted Him; and so to them He was peculiarly desirable. (3) The verb, "shall come," is plural, which requires the noun to be understood in the plural, whereas if Messiah be intended, the noun is singular. But when two nouns stand together, of which one is governed by the other, the verb agrees sometimes in number with the latter, though it really has the former as its nominative, that is, the Hebrew "come" is made in number to agree with "nations," though really agreeing with "the desire." Besides, Messiah may be described as realizing in Himself at His coming "the desires (the noun expressing collectively the plural) of all nations"; whence the verb is plural. So in Son 5:16, "He is altogether lovely," in the Hebrew the same word as here, "all desires," that is, altogether desirable, or the object of desires. (4) Hag 2:8, "The silver is mine," &c.; accords with the translation, "the choice things of all nations" shall be brought in. But Hag 2:8 harmonizes quite as well with English Version of Hag 2:7, as the note on eighth verse will show; see on Hag 2:8. (5) the Septuagint and Syriac versions agree with MOORE'S translation. But Vulgate confirms English Version. So also early Jewish Rabbis before JEROME'S time. PLATO [Alcibiades, 2] shows the yearning of the Gentiles after a spiritual deliverer: "It is therefore necessary," says Alcibiades on the subject of acceptable worship, "to wait until One teach us how we ought to behave towards the gods and men." Alcibiades replies, "When shall that time arrive, and who shall that Teacher be? For most glad would I be to see such a man." The "good tidings of great joy" were "to all people" (Luk 2:10). The Jews, and those in the adjoining nations instructed by them, looked for Shiloh to come unto whom the gathering of the people was to be, from Jacob's prophecy (Gen 49:10). The early patriarchs, Job (Job 19:25-27; Job 33:23-26) and Abraham (Joh 8:56), desired Him.

JFB: Hag 2:7

(Hag 2:9). As the first temple was filled with the cloud of glory, the symbol of God (1Ki 8:11; 2Ch 5:14), so this second temple was filled with the "glory" of God (Joh 1:14) veiled in the flesh (as it were in the cloud) at Christ's first coming, when He entered it and performed miracles there (Mat 21:12-14); but that "glory" is to be revealed at His second coming, as this prophecy in its ulterior reference foretells (Mal 3:1). The Jews before the destruction of Jerusalem all expected Messiah would appear in the second temple. Since that time they invent various forced and false interpretations of such plain Messianic prophecies.

JFB: Hag 2:8

(Job 41:11; Psa 50:12). Ye are disappointed at the absence of these precious metals in the adorning of this temple, as compared with the first temple: If I pleased I could adorn this temple with them, but I will adorn it with a "glory" (Hag 2:7, Hag 2:9) far more precious; namely, with the presence of My divine Son in His veiled glory first, and at His second coming with His revealed glory, accompanied with outward adornment of gold and silver, of which the golden covering within and without put on by Herod is the type. Then shall the nations bring offerings of those precious metals which ye now miss so much (Isa 2:3; Isa 60:3, Isa 60:6-7; Eze 43:2, Eze 43:4-5; Eze 44:4). The heavenly Jerusalem shall be similarly adorned, but shall need "no temple" (Rev 21:10-22). Compare 1Co 3:12, where gold and silver represent the most precious things (Zec 2:5). The inward glory of New Testament redemption far exceeds the outward glory of the Old Testament dispensation. So, in the case of the individual poor believer, God, if He pleased, could bestow gold and silver, but He bestows far better treasures, the possession of which might be endangered by that of the former (Jam 2:5).

JFB: Hag 2:9

Namely, through the presence of Messiah, in (whose) face is given the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (2Co 4:6; compare Heb 1:2), and who said of Himself, "in this place is one greater than the temple" (Mat 12:6), and who "sat daily teaching in it" (Mat 26:55). Though Zerubbabel's temple was taken down to the foundations when Herod rebuilt the temple, the latter was considered, in a religious point of view, as not a third temple, but virtually the second temple.

JFB: Hag 2:9

Namely, at Jerusalem, the metropolis of the kingdom of God, whose seat was the temple: where Messiah "made peace through the blood of His cross" (Col 1:20). Thus the "glory" consists in this "peace." This peace begins by the removal of the difficulty in the way of the just God accepting the guilty (Psa 85:8, Psa 85:10; Isa 9:6-7; Isa 53:5; Zec 6:13; 2Co 5:18-19); then it creates peace in the sinner's own heart (Isa 57:19; Act 10:36; Rom 5:1; Rom 14:17; Eph 2:13-17; Phi 4:7); then peace in the whole earth (Mic 5:5; Luk 2:14). First peace between God and man, then between man and God, then between man and man (Isa 2:4; Hos 2:18; Zec 9:10). As "Shiloh" (Gen 49:10) means peace, this verse confirms the view that Hag 2:7, "the desire of all nations," refers to Shiloh or Messiah, foretold in Gen 49:10.

Clarke: Hag 2:1

In the seventh month - This was a new message, and intended to prevent discouragement, and excite them to greater diligence in their work.

Clarke: Hag 2:3

Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? - Who of you has seen the temple built by Solomon? The foundation of the present house had been laid about fifty-three years after the destruction of the temple built by Solomon and though this prophecy was uttered fifteen years after the foundation of this second temple, yet there might still survive some of those who had seen the temple of Solomon

Clarke: Hag 2:3

Is it not in your eyes - Most certainly the Jews at this time had neither men nor means to make any such splendid building as that erected by Solomon. The present was as nothing when compared with the former.

Clarke: Hag 2:4

Yet now be strong - Do not let this discourage you. The chief glory of the temple is not its splendid building, but my presence; and as I covenanted to be with you when ye came out of Egypt, so I will fulfill my covenant; for my Spirit remaineth among you, fear not; Hag 2:5. What is the most splendid cathedral, if God be not in it, influencing all by his presence and Spirit? But he will not be in it unless there be a messenger of the Lord there, and unless he deliver the Lord’ s message.

Clarke: Hag 2:6

Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens - When the law was given on Mount Sinai, there was an earthquake that shook the whole mountain, Exo 19:18. "The political or religious revolutions which were to be effected in the world, or both, are here,"says Abp. Newcome, "referred to; compare Exo 19:21, Exo 19:22; Mat 24:29; Heb 12:26-28. The political ones began in the overthrow of the Persian monarchy by Alexander, within two centuries after this prediction; and if the Messiah’ s kingdom be meant, which is my opinion, this was erected in somewhat more than five centuries after the second year of Darius; a short period of time when compared with that which elapsed from the creation to the giving of the law, or from the giving of the law to the coming of the Messiah’ s kingdom. It must be understood that the word אחת achath , once, has a clear sense, if understood of the evangelical age; for many political revolutions succeeded, as the conquest of Darius Codomanus, and the various fortunes of Alexander’ s successors; but only one great and final religious revolution."- Newcome.

Clarke: Hag 2:7

And the Desire of all nations shall come - The present Hebrew text is as follows: ובאו חמדת כל הגוים . This is a difficult place if understood of a person: but חמדת chemdath , desire, cannot well agree with באו bau , they shall come. It is true that some learned men suppose that חמדות chemdoth , desirable things, may have been the original reading: but this is supported by no MS., nor is באו found in the singular number in any. It is generally understood of the desirable or valuable things which the different nations should bring into the temple; and it is certain that many rich presents were brought into this temple. All are puzzled with it. But the principal difficulty lies in the verb ובאו ubau , they shall come. If we found ובאה חמדת ubaa chemdath in the singular, then it would read as in our text, And the Desire of all nations shall come: but no such reading appears in any MS.; nor is it fairly acknowledged, except by the Vulgate, which reads, Et veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus , "And that which is desired,"or the desired Person, "shall come to all nations."In Hag 2:7 God says he will shake or stir up all nations; that these nations shall bring their desirable things; that the house shall be filled with God’ s glory; that the silver and gold, which these nations are represented as bringing by way of gifts, are the Lord’ s; and that the glory of this latter house shall exceed the former. Bp. Chandler labors to vindicate the present translation; but he makes rash assertions, and is abandoned by the Hebrew text. The בא ba , to come, is often used in the sense of bring, and that חמדת chemdath , desire, may be considered as the plural for חמדות, having the point holem instead of the ו vau , and thus mean desirable things, will not be denied by those who are acquainted with the genius and construction of the Hebrew language. Bp. Chandler thinks that בא, he came, cannot be used of things, but of persons only. Here he is widely mistaken, for it is used of days perpetually; and of the ark, 2Sa 6:9; and of mounts coming against Jerusalem, Jer 32:24; and of trees coming to adorn the temple, Isa 60:13; and of silver and gold coming into the temple, Jos 6:19; and Jer 6:20, Why doth incense come to me? See Abp. Secker’ s notes. I cannot see how the words can apply to Jesus Christ, even if the construction were less embarrassed than it is; because I cannot see how he could be called The Desire of All Nations

The whole seems to be a metaphorical description of the Church of Christ, and of his filling it with all the excellences of the Gentile world, when the fullness of the Gentiles shall be brought in.

Clarke: Hag 2:9

And in this place will I give peace - שלום shalom a peace-offering, as well as peace itself; or Jesus Christ, who is called the Prince of peace, through whom peace is proclaimed between God and man, between man and his fellows; and through whom peace is established in the disconsolate soul. And at this temple this peace was first promulgated and proclaimed

But it is said that the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. Now this cannot be said because Jesus Christ made his personal appearance in that temple, or rather in that built by Herod; for, though we allow that Jesus Christ is equal with God, we do not grant that he is greater. Now the first temple was the dwelling-place of God: here he manifested his glory between the cherubim, and it was his constant residence for more than four hundred years. But the glory of this latter house was greater because under it the grand scheme of human salvation was exhibited, and the redemption price paid down for a lost world. As all probably applies to the Christian Church, the real house of God, its glory was most certainly greater than any glory which was ever possessed by that of the Jews. See on Hag 2:22-23 (note).

Calvin: Hag 2:1

The Prophet now states another reason why he had been sent by God, in order that he might obviate a temptation which might have hindered the work that was begun. We have seen that they were all stirred up by the celestial spirit to undertake the building of the Temple. But as Satan, by his many arts, attempts to turn back the godly from their course, so he had devised a reason by which the desire of the people might have been checked. Inasmuch as the old people, who had seen the splendor of the former temple, considered this temple no better than a cottage, all their zeal evaporated; for, as we have said, without a promise there will continue in men no ardor, no perseverance. Now we know what had been predicted by Ezekiel, and what all the other Prophets had testified, especially Isaiah, who had spoken highly of the excellency of the Church, and shown that it was to be superior to its ancient state. (Isa 33:21.) Besides, Ezekiel describes the form of the Temple, and states its dimensions. (Eze 41:1.) As then the faithful had learnt from these prophecies that the new Temple would be more splendid than the ancient, they were in danger, not only of becoming cold in the business, but also of being wholly discouraged, when they perceived that the new Temple in no respect reached the excellency and grandeur of the ancient Temple. And these things are described at large by Josephus.

But we may easily conclude, from the words of the Prophet, that there was then a danger lest they should lay aside the work they had begun, except they were encouraged by a new exhortation. And he says that this happened in the seventh month, and on the first day of the month.

Here arises a question, How was it that they so soon compared the new with the old building. Seven or eight days had passed since the work was begun: nothing, doubtless, could have been then constructed, which might have afforded a ground of comparison. It seems then strange, that the Prophet had been so soon sent to them. An answer to this will be easily found, if we bear in mind. that what I have stated at the beginning of the first chapter, that the foundations of the Temple had been previously laid, but that there had been a long interruption: for the people had turned to their own private concerns, and all had become so devoted to their own advantages, that they neglected the building of the Temple. For it is wholly a false notion, that the people had returned from exile before the appointed time, and it has been sufficiently refuted by clear proofs; for scripture expressly declares, that both Cyrus and Darius had been led by a divine impulse to allow the return of the people. Hence, when the Jews returned to their country, they immediately began to build the Temple; but afterwards, as I have said, either avarice, or too anxious a desire for their own private benefit, laid hold on their minds. As then the building of the Temple had been for some time neglected, they were again encouraged, as our Prophet has shown to us. They had now hardly applied their hands to the work, when, through the artifice of Satan, such suggestions as these crept in—“What are ye doing, ye miserable men! Ye wish to build a Temple to your God; but what sort of Temple will it be? Certainly it will not be that which all the Prophets have celebrated. For what do we read in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel? Have not all these testified that the Temple which would be rebuilt after our return from Babylonian exile would be more splendid than the other? But we now build a shed. Surely this is done without authority. We do not then fight under the guidance of God; and it would be better for us to leave off the work; for our service cannot be approved of God, except it be founded on his Word. And we see how far this Temple comes short of what God has promised.”

We now hence learn, that it was not without reason that Haggai was sent on the eighth day to recover the people from their indifference. And hence also we may learn how necessary it is for us to be constantly stimulated; for Satan can easily find out a thousand impediments, by which he may turn us aside from the right course, except God often repeats his exhortations to keep us awake. Eight days only have elapsed, and the people would have ceased from their work, had not Haggai been sent to encourage them again.

Now the cause of this cessation, which the Prophet designed to obviate and to remove, ought to be especially noticed. The people had before ceased to work, because they were immoderately devoted to their own interest, which was a proof of base ingratitude and of profane impiety: for those who had no care for building the Temple were most ungrateful to God; and then their impiety was intolerable, inasmuch as they sought boarded houses to dwell in, being not content with decent houses without having them adorned, while the Temple was left, as it were, a wilderness. But the cause was different, when Haggai was sent the second time; for their indifference then arose from a good principle and a genuine feeling of religion. But we hence see what a subtle contriver Satan is, who not only draws us away openly from God’s service, but insinuates himself in a clandestine manner, so as to turn us aside, under the cover of zeal, from the course of our vocation. How was it that the people became negligent after they had begun the work? even because it grieved the old men to see the glory of the second, so far inferior to the first Temple. For though the people animated themselves by the sound of trumpets, yet the old among them drowned the sound by their lamentations. Whence was this? even because they saw, as I have said, that this Temple was in no way equal to the ancient one; and hence they thought that God was not as yet reconciled to them. Had they said, that so great an expense was not necessary, that God did not require much money to be laid out, their impiety should have been openly manifested; but when they especially wished that the splendor of the Temple would be such, as might surely prove that the restoration of the Church was come, such as had been promised by all the Prophets, we doubtless perceive their pious feeling.

But we are thus reminded, that we ought always to beware of the intrigues of Satan, when they appear under the cover of truth. When, therefore, our minds are disposed to piety, Satan is ever to be feared, lest he should stealthily suggest to us what may turn us aside from our duty; for we see that some leave the Church because they require in it the highest perfection. They are indignant at vices which they deem intolerable, when they cannot be corrected: and thus, under the pretext of zeal, they separate themselves and seek to form for themselves a new world, in which there is to be a perfect Church; and they lay hold on those passages in which the Holy Spirit recommends purity to the Church, as when Paul says, that it was purchased by Christ, that it might be without spot or wrinkle. As then these are inflamed with a zeal so rigid that they depart from God himself and violate the unity of the Church; so also there are many proud men who despise the Church of God, because it shines not forth among them in great pomp; and they think that God does not dwell in the midst of us, because we are obscure and of no great importance, and also because they regard our few number with contempt.

In all these there is some appearance of piety. How so? Because they would have God to be reverenced, so that they would have the whole world to be filled with the fear of his majesty; or they would have much wealth to be gathered, so that sumptuous offerings might be made. But, as I have already said, Satan thus cunningly insinuates himself; and hence we ought to fear his intrigues, lest, under plausible pretences, he should dazzle our eyes. But the best way of caution is to regard what God commands, and so to rely on his promises as to proceed steadily in our course, though the accomplishment of the promises does not immediately correspond with our desires; for God designedly keeps us in suspense in order to try our faith. Though then he may not as yet fulfill what he has promised, let it yet be our course to attempt nothing rashly, while we are obeying his command. It will then be our chief wisdom, by which we may escape all the crafts of Satan, simply to obey God’s word, and to exercise our hope so as patiently to wait the seasonable time, when he will fulfill what he now promises.

Calvin: Hag 2:6

Here the Prophet expresses more clearly, and confirms more fully, what I have said—that God would in time bring help to the miserable Jews, because he would not disappoint the assurance given to the fathers. This declaration, then, depends on the covenant before mentioned; and hence the causative particle is used, For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, as yet a small one it is, or, yet shortly, I will fill this house with glory. The expression a small thing, most interpreters aptly to time. Yet there are those who think the subject itself is denoted. The more received opinion is, that it means a small duration, a short time, because God would soon make a change for the better. “Though then there does not as yet appear the accomplishment of the promises, by which ye have hitherto supported your faith and your hope, yet after a short time God will really prove that he has spoken nothing falsely to you.”

There are yet some, as I have said, who think that the matter itself is denoted by the Prophet, even that the Temple did not yet appear in splendor before the eyes of men, a small one it is, that is, Ye see not indeed a building such as that was, before the Assyrians and the Chaldeans took possession of the city; but let not your eyes remain fixed on the appearance of this Temple. Let then this small one as yet pass by; but in a short time this house will be filled with glory

With regard to the main object, it was the Prophet’s design to strengthen the minds of the godly, that they might not think that the power of God was inefficient, though he had not as yet performed what they had hoped. In short, they were not to judge by present appearances of what had been previously said of their redemption. We said yesterday that the minds of the godly were heavily depressed, because the Prophets had spoken in high terms of the Temple as well as of the kingdom: the kingdom was as yet nothing; and the temple was more like a shed than what might have been compared in glory with the former Temple. It was hence necessary for the Prophet to meet this objection; and this is the reason why he bids them to overlook the present appearance, and to think of the glory which was yet hidden. As yet, he says, it is a small one; that is, “There is no reason for you to despair, though the grandeur of the Temple does not as yet appear to be so great as you have conceived; but, on the contrary, let your minds pass over to that restoration which is still far distant. As yet then a small one it is; and I will move the heavens and the earth. ” ¹⁴⁶

In a word, God here bids them to exercise patience, until he should put forth the ineffable power of his hand to restore fully his Church; and this is what is meant by the shaking of the heaven and the earth.

But this is a remarkable passage. The Jews indeed, who are very absurd in everything connected with the kingdom of Christ, pervert what is here said by the Prophet, and even reduce it to nothing. But the Apostle in Heb 12:1 reminds us of what God means here. For this passage contains an implied contrast between the law and the gospel, between redemption, just mentioned here, and that which was to be expected, and was at length made known by the coming of Christ. God, then, when he redeemed his people from Egypt, as well as from Babylon, moved the earth: but the Prophet announces here something greater—that God would shake the heaven and the earth. But that the meaning of the Prophet may appear more evident, each sentence must be examined in order.

He says first, this once, shortly. I am inclined to apply this to time, that I may not depart from what is commonly received. But there is no reason for us to contend on the subject, because it makes little or no difference as to the main point. For we have said that what the Prophet had in view was to show that the Jews were not to fix their eyes and their minds on the appearance of the Temple at the time: “Allow,” he says, “and give place to hope, because your present state shall not long remain; for the Lord will shake the heaven and the earth; think then of God’s power, how great it is; does he not by his providence rule both the earth and the heaven? And he will shake all things above and below, rather than not to restore his Church; he will rather change the appearance of the whole world, than that redemption should not be fully accomplished. Be not then unwilling to be satisfied with these preludes, but know what God’s power can do: for though it may be necessary to throw the heaven and the earth into confusions, yet this shall be done, rather than that your enemies should prevent that full restoration, of which the Prophets have so often spoken.” But the Apostle very justly says, that the gospel is here set in contrast with the law; for God exhibited his wonderful power, when the law was promulgated on mount Sinai; but a fuller power shone forth at the coming of Christ, for then the heaven, as well as the earth, was shaken. It is not, then, without reason that the Apostle concludes that God speaks now to us from heaven, for his majesty appears more splendid in the gospel than formerly in the law: and hence we are less excusable, if we despise him now speaking in the person of his only begotten Son, and thus speaking to show to us that the whole world is subject to him.

He then adds, I will move all the nations, and they shall come. After having mentioned the heaven and the earth, he now shows that he would arrest the attention of all mortals, so as to turn them according to his will, in any way it may please him: Come, he says, shall all nations—How? because I shall shake them. Here again the Prophet teaches us that men come not to Christ except through the wonderful agency of God. He might have spoken more simply, I will lead all nations, as it is said elsewhere; but his purpose was to express something more, even that the impulse by which God moves his elect to betake themselves to the fold of Christ is supernatural. Shaking seems a forcible act. Lest men, then, should obscure the power of God, by which they are roused that they may obey Christ, and submit to his authority, it is here by the Prophet expressed by this term, in order that they might understand that the Lord does not work in an usual or common manner, when they are thus changed.

But it must be also observed, that men are thus powerfully, and in an extraordinary or supernatural manner influenced, so that they follow spontaneously at the same time. The operation of God is then twofold; for it is first necessary to shake men, that they may unlearn their whole character, that is, that forgetting their former nature, they may willingly receive the yoke of Christ. We indeed know how great is our perverseness, and how unnameable we are, until God subdues us by his Spirit. There is need in such a case of a violent shaking. But we are not forced to obey Christ, as lions and wild beasts are, who indeed yield, but still retain their inward ferocity, and roar, though led in chains and subdued by scourges and beatings. We are not, then, so shaken, that our inward rebellion remains in us; but we are shaken, so that our disposition is changed, and we receive willingly the yoke of Christ. This is the reason why the Prophet says, I will shake all nations, and they shall come; that is, there will be indeed a wonderful conversion, when the nations who previously despised God, and regarded true religion and piety with the utmost hatred, shall habituate themselves to the ruling power of God: and they shall come, because they shall be so drawn by his hidden influence, that the obedience they shall render will be voluntary. We now perceive the meaning of the Prophet.

He afterwards adds, The desire of all nations. This admits of two explanations. The first is, that nations shall come and bring with them everything that is precious, in order to consecrate it to the service of God; for the Hebrews call whatever is valuable a desire; so that under this term they include all riches, honors, pleasures, and everything of this kind. Hence some render the passage thus, I will shake all nations, and come shall the desire of all nations. As there is a change of number; others will have ב , beth, or מ , mem, to be understood, They shall come with what they desire; that is, the nations shall not come empty, but shall gather all their treasures to be a holy oblation to God. But we may understand what he says of Christ, Come shall the desire of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory. We indeed know that Christ was the expectation of the whole world, according to what is said by Isaiah. And it may be properly said, that when the desire of all nations shall come, that is, when Christ shall be manifested, in whom the wishes of all ought to center, the glory of the second Temple shall then be illustrious; but as it immediately follows, Mine is the silver, and mine is the gold, the more simple meaning is that which I first stated—that the nations would come, bringing with them all their riches, that they might offer themselves and all their possessions as a sacrifice to God.

It is, then, better to read what follows as an explanation, Mine is the silver, mine is the gold, saith Jehovah; that is, “I have not through want of money deferred hitherto the complete building of the Temple; for what can hinder me from amassing gold and silver from all quarters? Should it so please me, I could in a short time build a Temple by all the wealth of the world. Is it not indeed in my power to create mountains of gold and silver, by which I might erect for myself a Temple? Ye hence see that wealth is not wanting to me to build the Temple which I have promised; but the time is not arrived. Therefore they who believe the preceding predictions, ought to wait and to look forward, until the suitable time shall come.” This is the import of the passage. ¹⁴⁷

He at length declares that the glory of the second Temple would be greater than that of the first, and that there would be peace in that place. As to the words there is nothing obscure; but we ought especially to attend to what is said.

It must, indeed, be first observed, that what is said here of the future glory of the Temple is to be applied to the excellency of those spiritual blessings which appeared when Christ was revealed, and are still conspicuous to us through faith; for ungodly men are so blind that they see them not. And this we must bear in mind, lest we dream like some gross interpreters, who think that what is here said was in part fulfilled when Herod reconstructed the Temple. For though that was a sumptuous building, yet there is no doubt but that it was an attempt of the Devil to delude the Jews, that they might cease to hope for Christ. Such was also, probably, the craft of Herod. We indeed know that he was only a half-Jew. He professed himself to be one of Abraham’s children; but he accommodated his habits, we know, to those of the Jews, oddly for his own advantage. That they might not look for Christ, this delusive and empty spectacle was presented to them, so as almost to astound them. Though this, however, may not have entered into the mind of Herod, it is yet certain that the Devil’s design was to present to the Jews this deceptive shade, that they might not raise up their thoughts to look for the coming of Christ, as the time was then near at hand.

God might, indeed, immediately at the beginning have caused a magnificent temple to be built: as he had allowed a return to the people, so he might have given them courage, and supplied them with materials, to render the latter Temple equal or even superior to the Temple of Solomon. But Cyrus prohibited by an edict the Temple to be built so high, and he also made its length somewhat smaller: Why was this done? and why also did Darius do the same, who yet liberally helped the Jews, and spared no expense in building the Temple? How was it that both these kings, though guided by the Spirit of God, did not allow the Temple to be built with the same splendor with which it had been previously erected? This did not happen without the wonderful counsel of God; for we know how gross in their notions the Jews had been, and we see that even the Apostles were entangled in the same error; for they expected that the kingdom of Christ would be no other than an earthly one. Had then this Temple been equally magnificent with the former, and had the kingdom become such as it had been, the Jews would have acquiesced in these outward pomps; so that Christ would have been despised, and God’s spiritual favor would have been esteemed as nothing. Since, then, they were so bent on earthly happiness, it was necessary for them to be awakened; and the Lord had regard to their weakness, by not allowing a splendid Temple to be built. But in suffering a counterfeit Temple to be built by Herod, when the manifestation of Christ was nigh, he manifested his vengeance by punishing their ingratitude, rather than his favor; and I call it counterfeit, because its splendor was never approved by God. Though Herod spent great treasures on that building, he yet profaned rather than adorned the Temple. Foolishly, then, do some commemorate what Helena, queen of Adiabenians, had laid out, and think that thus a credit is in some measure secured to this prophecy. But it was on the contrary Satan who attempted to deceive by such impostures and crafts, that he might draw away the minds of the godly from the beauty of the spiritual Temple.

But why does the prophet mention gold and silver? He did this in conformity with what was usual and common; for whenever the Prophets speak of the kingdom of Christ, they delineate or describe its splendor in figurative terms, suitable to their own age. When Isaiah foretells the restoration of the Church, he declares that the Church would be all gold and silver, and whatever glittered with precious stones; and in Isa 60:1 he especially sets forth the magnificence of the Temple, as though nations from all parts were to bring for sacrifice all their precious things. But Isaiah speaks figuratively, as all the other Prophets do. So then what we read of gold and of silver ought to be so explained as to be applied mystically to the kingdom of Christ; as we have already observed respecting Mal 1:11 —

‘They shall offer to me, saith the Lord,
pure sacrifices from the rising to the setting of the sun.’

What are these sacrifices? Are heifers yet to be offered, or lambs, or other animals? By no means; but we must regard the spiritual character of the priesthood; for as the gold of which the Prophet now speaks, and the silver, ought to be taken in a spiritual sense; for since Christ has appeared in the world, it is not God’s will to be served with gold and silver vessels; so also there is no altar on which victims are to be sacrificed, and no candlestick; in a word, all the symbols of the law have ceased. It hence follows that the Prophet speaks of the spiritual ornaments of the Temple. And thus we perceive how the glory of the second Temple is to be greater than that of the first.

It then follows, that God would give peace in this place; as though he had said that it would be well with the Jews if they only waited patiently for the complete fulfillment of redemption. But it must be observed, that this peace was not so evident to them that they could enjoy it according to the perception of the flesh; but it was that kind of peace of which Paul speaks, and which, he says, exceeds all understanding (Phi 4:7.) In short, the people could not have comprehended what the Prophet teaches here respecting the future splendor of the Temple, except they leaped over all the obstacles which seemed to obstruct the progress of complete redemption; and so it was ever necessary for them to have recourse to this truth— yet a little while; as though he said that they were patiently to endure while God was exercising their faith: but that the time would come, and that shortly, when the Lord would fill that house with glory that is, when Christ would bring witch him all fullness of glory; for though they were to gather the treasures of a thousand worlds into one mass, such a glory would yet be corruptible; but when God the Father appeared in the person of his own Son, he then glorified indeed his Temple; and his majesty shone forth so much that there was nothing wanting to a complete perfection.

Defender: Hag 2:3

There is an implication here that Haggai himself must have seen the glories of the first temple, and was distressed at the state of the new one. If so, he must have been quite, old when he wrote his prophecies, because the temple had been destroyed seventy years or more before this. His great age may account for the fact that he wrote only the four brief messages which are contained in his two chapters.

Defender: Hag 2:3

There were, indeed, in Jerusalem a few who had seen the first temple, and who had wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy (Ezr 3:12) when the new foundation was laid."

Defender: Hag 2:6

This verse is quoted in Heb 12:26-27, as an event still. in the, future. Thus, it could not have been fulfilled at the time of Christ's first coming (except precursively, perhaps; as a type of the terrible upheavals coming in the tribulation period), and so must be still in the future."

Defender: Hag 2:7

There will be global earthquakes during the tribulation period of the last days (Rev 6:12-17; Rev 16:18-21), whereby the earth's topography will be readjusted to something like its original character (Isa 40:4).

Defender: Hag 2:7

The "desire of all. nations" can be no one less than the Lord Jesus Christ, the world's Redeemer. He did in a precursive sense, fill Herod's temple with His glory (Joh 1:14; Joh 2:13-16), but never the restoration temple. This specific prophecy evidently harks back to the Edenic promise of Gen 3:15. He was not merely the desire of Israel, but the "desire of all nations." Some versions incorrectly say this refers to the wealth of all nations coming to the temple.

Defender: Hag 2:7

Following the, tribulation period, with its terrible earthquakes and other cataclysmic phenomena, the Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory (Mat 24:30; Isa 40:5). There is no indication that the Shekinah glory of God ever returned to the post-exilic temple or to the later temple built for the Jews by Herod. These were of much inferior construction compared to Solomon's temple. However, the temple described by Ezekiel as existing during the millennium (Ezekiel 40-48) will, indeed, once again be filled with the glory of God (Eze 43:5; Eze 44:4; 1Ki 8:10, 1Ki 8:11)."

Defender: Hag 2:8

This may be an incidental reference to the incredible wealth of ornamental beauty that characterized Solomon's original temple. But it also was a pertinent reminder to the Jews with their "cieled houses" (Hag 1:4) that all the world's wealth was created by God and still belongs to Him. He can both give it and take it away. We need the same reminder today."

Defender: Hag 2:9

This, again, can only be a reference to the future millennial temple, for it was never accomplished in the restoration temple or in any other since. Furthermore, in this future temple - and not before - Christ will finally "give peace" to the world."

TSK: Hag 2:1

the seventh : Hag 2:10,Hag 2:20, Hag 1:15

the prophet : Heb. the hand of the prophet, etc. Hag 1:1; 2Pe 1:21

TSK: Hag 2:2

governor : Hag 1:14; Ezr 1:8, Ezr 2:63; Neh 8:9

TSK: Hag 2:3

is left : Ezr 3:12; Zec 4:9, Zec 4:10

glory : Eze 7:20; Luk 21:5, Luk 21:6

TSK: Hag 2:4

now : Deu 31:23; Jos 1:6, Jos 1:9; 1Ch 22:13, 1Ch 28:20; Zec 8:9; 1Co 16:13; Eph 6:10; 2Ti 2:1

for : Hag 1:13; Exo 3:12; Jdg 2:18; 1Sa 16:18; 2Sa 5:10; Mar 16:20; Act 7:9; 2Ti 4:17

TSK: Hag 2:5

to the : Exo 29:45, Exo 29:46, Exo 33:12-14, Exo 34:8, Exo 34:10

so : Num 11:25-29; Neh 9:20,Neh 9:30; Psa 51:11, Psa 51:12; Isa 63:11-14; Zec 4:6; Joh 14:16, Joh 14:17

fear : Jos 8:1; 2Ch 20:17; Isa 41:10,Isa 41:13; Zec 8:13, Zec 8:15; Mat 28:5; Act 27:24; Rev 1:17

TSK: Hag 2:6

Yet : Hag 2:21, Hag 2:22; Heb 12:26-28

it is : Psa 37:10; Isa 10:25, Isa 29:17; Jer 51:33; Heb 10:37

and I : Isa 34:4; Jer 4:23-26; Eze 38:20; Joe 2:30-32, Joe 3:16; Mat 24:29, Mat 24:30; Mar 13:24-26; Luk 21:25-27; Act 2:19; Heb 12:26; Rev 6:12-17, Rev 8:5-12; Rev 11:9, 6:2-17

TSK: Hag 2:7

I will shake : Eze 21:27; Dan 2:44, Dan 2:45, Dan 7:20-25; Joe 3:9-16; Luk 21:10,Luk 21:11

and the : Gen 3:15, Gen 22:18, Gen 49:10; Zec 9:9, Zec 9:10; Luk 2:10,Luk 2:11, Luk 2:27, Luk 2:46; Rom 15:9-15; Gal 3:8

I will fill : Exo 40:34, Exo 40:35; 1Ki 8:11; 2Ch 5:14; Psa 80:1; Mal 3:1; Luk 19:47, Luk 20:1; Luk 21:38; Joh 1:14, Joh 2:13-17, Joh 7:37-39, 10:23-38; Col 2:9

TSK: Hag 2:8

1Kings 6:20-35; 1Ch 29:14-16; Psa 24:1, Psa 50:10-12; Isa 60:13, Isa 60:17

TSK: Hag 2:9

glory : Psa 24:7-10; Joh 1:14; 2Co 3:9, 2Co 3:10; 1Ti 3:16; Jam 2:1

saith : Whoever compares the description of the temple of Solomon, in the first book of Kings, with the most splendid accounts of the second temple, however adorned with costly stones and other magnificent decorations in after ages, must perceive that the former, being wholly overlaid with pure gold, was incomparably more glorious than the latter in its greatest magnificence; and the Jews themselves allow that the ark of the covenant, fire from heaven, the Urim and Thummim the anointing oil, the Shechinah or visible glory, and the spirit of prophecy, which distinguished the former temple, were wanting in this. In nothing, in fact, could the second temple excel the first in glory, except in the personal presence of ""the Desire of all nations,""He who is ""the glory of the Lord,""and the true temple, ""in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,""and who was the true Shechinah of which that of Solomon’ s temple was merely a type. And if it be admitted that the presence of the promised Messiah was intended, then it will follow that ""Jesus of Nazareth""was He; for the second temple, in which as the ""Prince of peace""he preached peace and reconciliation with God, has been utterly destroyed for upwards of seventeen hundred years.

give : Psa 85:8, Psa 85:9; Isa 9:6, Isa 9:7, Isa 57:18-21; Mic 5:5; Luk 2:14; Joh 14:27; Act 10:36; Eph 2:14-17; Col 1:19-21

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Hag 2:1

In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month - This was the seventh day of the feast of tabernacles, Lev 23:34, Lev 23:36, Lev 23:40-42. and its close. The eighth day was to be a sabbath, with its "holy convocation,"but the commemorative feast, the dwelling in booths, in memory of God’ s bringing them out of Egypt, was to last seven days. The close then of this feast could not but revive their sadness at the glories of their first deliverance by God’ s "mighly hand and outstretched arm,"and their present fewness and poverty. This depression could not but bring with it heavy thoughts about the work, in which they were, in obedience to God, engaged; and that, all the more, since Isaiah and Ezekiel had prophesied of the glories of the Christian Church under the symbol of the temple. This despondency Haggai is sent to relieve, owning plainly the reality of its present grounds, but renewing, on God’ s part, the pledge of the glories of this second temple, which should be thereafter.

Barnes: Hag 2:3

Who is left among you? - The question implies that there were those among them, who had seen the first house in its glory, yet but few. When the foundations of the first temple were laid, there were many Ezr 3:12. "Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundations of this house were laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice."Fifty-nine years had elapsed from the destruction of the temple in the eleventh year of Zedekiah to the first of Cyrus; so that old men of seventy years had seen the first temple, when themselves eleven years old. In this second of Darius seventy years had passed, so that those of 78 or 80 years might still well remember it. Ezra’ s father, Seraiah, was slain in the eleventh year of Zedekiah; so he must have been born at latest a few months later; yet he lived to the second of Artaxerxes.

Is not such as it is as nothing? - o Beside the richness of the sculptures in the former temple, everything, which admitted of it, was overlaid with gold 1Ki 6:22, 1Ki 6:28, 1Ki 6:30, 1Ki 6:32, 1Ki 6:35, "Solomon overlaid the whole house with gold, until he had finished all the house, the whole altar by the oracle, the two cherubim, the floor of the house, the doors of the holy of holies"and the ornaments of it, "the cherubims thereon"and "the palm trees he covered with gold fitted upon the carved work 1Ki 7:48-50, the altar of gold and the table of gold, whereupon the showbread was, the ten candlesticks of pure gold, with the flowers and the lamps and the tongs of gold, the bowls, the snuffers and the basons and the spoons and the censers of pure gold, and hinges of pure gold for all the doors of the temple 2Ch 3:4-9. The porch that was in the front of the house, twenty cubits broad and 120 cubits high, was overlaid within with pure gold;"the house glistened with precious stones; and the gold (it is added) was "gold of Parvaim,"a land distant of course and unknown to us. "Six hundred talents of gold"(about 4,320,000 British pounds were employed in overlaying the holy of holies. "The upper chambers were also of gold; the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold."

Barnes: Hag 2:4

Yet now be strong ... and work - They are the words with which David exhorted Solomon his son to be earnest and to persevere in the building of the first temple 1Ch 28:10. "Take heed now, for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong and do"1Ch 28:20. "Be strong and of good courage, and do."This combination of words occurs once only elsewhere 2Ch 19:11, in Jehoshaphat’ s exhortation to "the 2Ch 19:8. Levites and priests and chiefs of the fathers of Israel,"whom he had set as judges in Jerusalem. Haggai seems then to have adopted the words, with the purpose of suggesting to the down-hearted people, that there was need of the like exhortation, in view of the building of the former temple, whose relative glory so depressed them. The word "be strong"(elsewhere rendered, "be of good courage") occurs commonly in exhortations to persevere and hold fast, amid whatever obstacles. .

Barnes: Hag 2:5

The words which I covenanted - The words stand more forcibly, because abruptly.

It is an exclamation which cannot be forced into any grammatical relation with the preceding. The more exact idiom would have been "Remember,""take to heart."But the prophet points to it the more energetically, because he casts it, as it were, into the midst, not bound up with any one verb. This would be the rather done in speaking to the people, as David to his followers (1Sa 30:23, which Ewald compares, Lehrb. n. 329. a. p. 811, ed. 8. and in his Die Proph. iii. 183. Only he, not very intelligibly, makes it a sort of oath, By the word, By that which the Lord hath given us. But he suggests the like broken sentence Zech. vii. 7), "That which the Lord hath given us and hath preserved us and given the company against us into our hands!"i. e., "Would you deal thus with it?"The abrupt form rejects it as shocking. So here, "The word which I covenanted with you,"i. e. this, "I will be with you,"was the central all-containing promise, to which God pledged Himself when He brought them out of Egypt. He speaks to them as being one with those who came up out of Egypt, as if they were the very persons. The Church, ever varying in the individuals of whom it is composed, is, throughout all ages, in God’ s sight, one; His promises to the fathers are made to the children in them. So the Psalmist says, "There"(at the dividing of the Red Sea and the Jordan) "do we rejoice in Him,"as if present there; and our Lord promises to the Apostles, Mat 28:20. "I am with you always even to the end of the world,"by an ever-present presence with them and His Church founded by them in Him.

My Spirit abideth among you, - as the Psalmist says Psa 102:27, "they (the heavens) perish and Thou abidest"Psa 33:11, "The counsel of the Lord standeth forever"Psa 111:3, "His righteousness endureth forever."The Spirit of God is God the Holy Spirit, with His manifold gifts. Where He is, is all good. As the soul is in the body, so God the Holy Spirit is in the Church, Himself its life, and bestowing on all and each every good gift, as each and all have need. As Paul says of the Church of Christ 1Co 12:4, 1Co 12:6, 1Co 12:11, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God, who worketh all in all. All these worketh one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will."But above and beyond all gifts He is present as the Spirit of holiness and love, making the Church and those in whom He individually dwells, acceptable to God. Special applications, such as "the Spirit of wisdom and might;"a spirit such as He gave to Moses to judge His people; the spirit of prophecy; or the spirit given to Bezaleel and Aholiab for the work of the sanctuary - these recognize in detail the one great truth, that all good, all wisdom, from least to greatest, comes from God the Holy Spirit; though one by one they would exclude more truth than they each contain.

Barnes: Hag 2:6

Yet once, it is a little while - This, the rendering of Paul to the Hebrews, is alone grammatical . "Yet once."By the word yet he looks back to the first great shaking of the moral world, when God’ s revelation by Moses and to His people broke upon the darkness of the pagan world, to be a monument against pagan error until Christ should come; once looks on, and conveys that God would again shake the world, but once only, under the one dispensation of the Gospel, which should endure to the end.

It is a little while - o "The 517 years, which were to elapse to the birth of Christ, are called a little time, because to the prophets, ascending in heart to God and the eternity of God, all times, like all things of this world, seem, as they are, only a little thing, yea a mere point;"which has neither length nor breadth. So John calls the time of the new law, "the last hour"1Jo 2:18, "Little children, it is the last hour."It was little also in respect to the time, which had elapsed from the fall of Adam, upon which God promised the Saviour Christ Gen 3:15, little also in respect to the Christian law, which has now lasted above 1,800 years, and the time of the end does not seem yet near.

I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land - It is one universal shaking of all this our world and the heavens over it, of which the prophet speaks. He does not speak only of Luk 21:25 "signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars,"which might be, and yet the frame of the world itself might remain. It is a shaking, such as would involve the dissolution of this our system, as Paul draws out its meaning; Heb 12:27. "This word, once more, signifieth the removing of the things that are shaken, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain."Prophecy, in its long perspective, uses a continual foreshortening, speaking of things in relation to their eternal meaning and significance, as to that which shall survive, when heaven and earth and even time shall have passed away. It blends together the beginning and the earthly end; the preparation and the result; the commencement of redemption and its completion; our Lord’ s coming in humility and in His Majesty. Scarcely any prophet but exhibits things in their intrinsic relation, of which time is but an accident.

It is the rule, not the exception. The Seed of the woman, who should bruise the serpent’ s head, was promised on the fall: to Abraham, the blessing through his seed; by Moses, the prophet like unto him; to David, an everlasting covenant 2Sa 23:5. Joel unites the out-pouring of the Spirit of God on the Day of Pentecost, and the hatred of the world until the Day of Judgment Joe 2:28-32; Joel 3. Isaiah, God’ s judgments on the land and the Day of final judgment Isa. 24, the deliverance from Babylon, and the first coming of Christ Isa. 40\endash 66, the glories of the Church, the new heavens and the new earth which shall remain forever, and the unquenched fire and undying worm of the lost Isa 66:22-24, Daniel, the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, of Anti-Christ, and the Resurrection; Dan. 11\endash 12. Obadiah, the punishment of Edom and the everlasting kingdom of God; Oba 1:18-21. Zephaniah, the punishment of Judah and the final judgment of the earth . Malachi, our Lord’ s first and second coming Mal 3:1-5, Mal 3:17-18; Mal 4:1-6.

Nay, our Lord Himself so blends together the destruction of Jerusalem and the days of Anti-Christ and the end of the world, that it is difficult to separate them, so as to say what belongs exclusively to either The prophecy is an answer to two distinct questions of the Apostles,

(1) "When shall these things (namely, the destruction of the temple) be?"

(2) "And what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world?"Our Lord answers the two questions in one. Some things seem to belong to the first coming, as Mat 24:15-16, "the abomination of desolation spoke of by Daniel,"and the flight from Mat 24:24 "Judea into the mountains."But the exceeding deceivableness is authoritatively interpreted by Paul 2 Thes Mat 5:2-10. of a distant time; and our Lord Himself, having said that "all these things,"of which the Apostles had inquired, should take place in that generation Mar 13:30 speaks of His absence as of a man taking a far journey Mar 13:3, and says that "not the angels in heaven knew that hour, neither the Son Mar 13:32, which precludes the idea, that He had just before declared that the whole would take place in that generation. For this would be to make out, that He declared that the Son knew not the hour of His Coming, which He had just (on this supposition) declared to be in that generation.

So then, here. There was a general shaking upon earth before our Lord came. Empires rose and fell. The Persian fell before Alexander’ s; Alexander’ s world-empire was ended by his sudden death in youth; of his four successors, two only continued, and they too fell before the Romans; then were the Roman civil wars, until, under Augustus, the temple of Janus was shut. "For it greatly beseemed a work ordered by God, that many kingdoms should be confederated in one empire, and that the universal preaching might find the peoples easily accessible who were held under the rule of one state."In the heavens was the star, which led the wise men, the manifestation of Angels to the shepherds; the preternatural darkness at the Passion; the Ascension into the highest heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit with Act 2:2, "a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.""God had moved them (heaven and earth) before, when He delivered the people from Egypt, when there was in heaven a column of fire, dry ground amid the waves, a wall in the sea, a path in the waters, in the wilderness there was multiplied a daily harvest of heavenly food (the manna), the rock gushed into fountains of waters. But He moved it afterward also in the Passion of the Lord Jesus, when the heaven was darkened, the sun shrank back, the rocks were rent. the graves opened, the dead were raised, the dragon, conquered in his waters, saw the fishers of men, not only sailing in the sea, but also walking without peril. The dry ground also was moved, when the unfruitful people of the nations began to ripen to a harvest of devotion and faith - so that "more were the children of the forsaken, than of her which had a husband,"and Isa 35:1. "the desert flourished like a lily". "He moved earth in that great miracle of the birth from the Virgin: He moved the sea and dry land, when in the islands and in the whole world Christ is preached. So we see all nations moved to the faith."

And yet, whatever preludes of fulfillment there were at our Lord’ s first coming, they were as nothing to the fulfillment which we look for in the second, "when Isa 24:19-20 the earth shall be utterly broken down; the earth, clean dissolved; the earth, moved exceedingly; the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a hanging-cot in a vineyard and the transgression thereof is heavy upon it; and it shall fall and not rise again;"whereon follows an announcement of the final judgment of men and angels, and the everlasting kingdom of the blessed in the presence of God.

Of that "day of the Lord,"Peter uses our Lord’ s image, Mat 24:43. that it shall 2Pe 3:10. come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works therein shall be burned up."

Barnes: Hag 2:7

And the desire of all nations shall come - The words can only mean this, the central longing of all nations

He whom they longed for, either through the knowledge of Him spread by the Jews in their dispersion, or mutely by the aching craving of the human heart, longing for the restoration from its decay. "The earnest expectation of the creature"did not begin with the Coming of Christ, nor was it limited to those, who actually came to Him Rom 8:19-22. "The whole creation,"Paul saith, "groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."It was enslaved, and the better self longed to be free; every motion of grace in the multitudinous heart of man was a longing for its Deliverer; every weariness of what it was, every fleeting vision of what was better, every sigh from out of its manifold ills, were notes of the one varied cry, "Come and help us."Man’ s heart, formed in the image of God, could not but ache to be reformed by and for Him, though "an unknown God,"who should reform it.

This longing increased as the time drew near, when Christ should come. The Roman biographer attests the existence of this expectation, not among the Jews only, but in the East ; this was quickened doubtless among the pagan by the Jewish Sibylline book, in that, amid the expectations of one sent from heaven, who should found a kingdom of righteousness, which the writer drew from the Hebrew prophets, he inserted denunciations of temporal vengeance upon the Romans, which Easterns would share. Still, although written 170 years before our Lord came , it had not apparently much effect until the time, when, from the prophecies of Daniel it was clear, that He must shortly come . Yet the attempt of the Jewish and pagan historian to wrest it to Vespasian, shows how great must have been the influence of the expectation, which they attempted to turn aside.

The Jews, who rejected our Lord whom Haggai predicted, still were convinced that the prediction must be fulfilled before the destruction of the second temple. The impulse did not cease even after its destruction. R. Akiba, whom they accounted "the first oracle of his time, the first and greatest guardian of the tradition and old law,"of whom they said, that "God revealed to him things unknown to Moses,"was induced by this prophecy to acknowledge the impostor Bar-cochab, to the destruction of himself and of the most eminent of his time; fulfilling our Lord’ s words Joh 5:43, "I am come in My fathers name, and ye receive Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive."

Akiba, following the traditional meaning of the great prophecy which rivetted his own eyes, paraphrased the words, "Yet a little, a little of the kingdom, will I give to Israel upon the destruction of the first house, and after the kingdom, lo! I will shake heaven, and after that will come the Messiah."

Since the words can only mean "the Desire of all nations,"he or that which all nations long for, the construction of the words does not affect the meaning. Herod doubtless thought to advance his own claims on the Jewish people by his material adorning of the temple; yet, although mankind do covet gold and silver, few could seriously think that, while a pagan immoral but observant poet could speak of "gold undiscovered and so better placed,"or our own of the "pale and common drudge ‘ Tween man and man,"a Hebrew prophet could recognize gold and silver as "the desire of all nations."Rabbi Akiba and Jerome’ s Jewish teachers, after our Lord came, felt no difficulty in understanding it of a person. We cannot in English express the delicacy of the phrase, whereby manifoldness is combined in unity, the Object of desire containing in itself many objects of desire.

To render "the desire of all nations"or "the desires of all nations"alike fail to do this. A great pagan master of language said to his wife, "fare you well, my longings,"i. e., I suppose, if he had analyzed his feelings, he meant that she manifoldly met the longings of his heart; she had in herself manifold gifts to content them. So Paul sums up all the truths and gifts of the Gospel, all which God shadowed out in the law and had given us in Christ, under the name of "the good things to come."A pious modern writer speaks of "the unseen desirables of the spiritual world."A psalmist expresses at once the collective, "God’ s Word"and the "words"contained in it, by an idiom like Haggai’ s, joining the feminine singular as a collective with the plural verb; "How sweet are Thy word unto my taste,"literally "palate."

It is God’ s word, at once collectively and individually, which was to the Psalmist so sweet. What was true of the whole, was true, one by one, of each part; what was true of each part, was true of the whole. So here, the object of this longing was manifold, but met in one, was concentrated in One, 1Co 1:30. "in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption."That which the whole world sighed and mourned for, knowingly or unknowingly, light to disperse its darkness, liberty from its spiritual slavery, restoration from its degradation, could not come to us without some one, who should impart it to us.

But if Jesus was "the longed-for of the nations"before He came, by that mute longing of need for that which it wants (as the parched ground thirsteth for the rain how much more afterward! So Micah and Isaiah describe many peoples inviting one another Mic 4:2; Isa 2:3. "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths."And in truth He became the "desire of the nations,"much more than of the Jews; as, Paul says, (Rom 10:19-20; quoting Deu 32:21. Isa 65:2.) God foretold of old; "Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are not a people: by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought Me not."

So until now and in eternity, "Christ is the longing of all holy souls, who long for nothing else, than to please Him, daily to love Him more, to worship Him better. So John longed for Him; "Come, Lord Jesus Rev 22:20. So Isaiah Isa 26:8-9, "The desire of our soul is to Thy Name and to the remembrance of Thee: with my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me, will I seek Thee early."So Ignatius, "Let fire, cross, troops of wild beasts, dissections, rendings, scattering of bones, mincing of limbs, grindings of the whole body, ill tortures of the devil come upon me, only may I gain Jesus Christ. - I seek Him Who for us died; I long for Him Who for us rose."

"Hungerest thou and desirest food? Long for Jesus! He is the bread and refreshment of Angels. He is manna, "containing in Him all sweetness and pleasurable delight."Thirstest thou? Long for Jesus! He is the well of "living water,"refreshing, so that thou shouldest thirst no more. Art thou sick? Go to Jesus. He is the Saviour, the physician, nay, salvation itself. Art thou dying? Sigh for Jesus! He is "the resurrection and the life."Art thou perplexed? Come to Jesus! He is "the Angel of great counsel."Art thou ignorant and erring? Ask Jesus; He is "the way, the truth and the life."Art thou a sinner? Call on Jesus! For "He shall save His people from their sins."To this end He came into the world: "This is all His fruit, to take away sin."Art thou tempted by pride, gluttony, lust, sloth? Call on Jesus! He is humility, soberness, chastity, love, fervor: "He bare our infirmities, and carried,"yea still beareth and carrieth, "our griefs."

Seekest thou beauty? He is "fairer than the children of men."Seekest thou wealth? In Him are "all treasures,"yea in Him "the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth."Art thou ambitious of honors? "Glory and riches are in His house.""He is the King of glory."Seekest thou a friend? He hath the greatest love for thee, who for love of thee came down from heaven, toiled, endured the Sweat of Blood, the Cross and Death; He prayed for thee by name in the garden, and poured forth tears of Blood! Seekest thou wisdom? He is the Eternal and Uncreated Wisdom of the Father! Wishest thou for consolation and joy? He is the sweetness of souls, the joy and jubilee of Angels. Wishest thou for righteousness and holiness? He is "the Holy of holies;"He "is everlasting Righteousness,"justifying and sanctifying all who believe and hope in Him. Wishest thou for a blissful life? He is "life eternal,"the bliss of the saints. Long then for Him, love Him, sigh for Him! In Him thou wilt find all good; out of Him, all evil, all misery. Say then with Francis, ‘ My Jesus, my love and my all!’ O Good Jesus, burst the cataract of Thy love, that its streams, yea seas, may flow down upon us, yea, inebriate and overwhelm us."

And I will fill this house with glory - The glory then was not to be anything, which came from man, but directly from God. It was the received expression of God’ s manifestation of Himself in the tabernacle Exo 40:34-35. in Soloman’ s temple, 1Ki 8:11; 2Ch 5:14; 2Ch 7:1-12, and of the ideal temple Eze 43:5; Eze 44:4. which Ezekiel saw, after the likeness of that of Solomon, that "the glory of the Lord filled the house."When then of this second temple God uses the self-same words, that He will "fill it with glory,"with what other glory should He fill it than His own? In the history it is said, "the glory of the Lord filled the temple;"for there man relates what God did. Here it is God Himself who speaks; so He says not, "the glory of the Lord,"but, "I will fill the house with glory,"glory which was His to give, which came from Himself. To interpret that glory of anything material, is to do violence to language, to force on words of Scripture an unworthy sense, which they refuse to bear.

The gold upon the walls, even had the second temple been adorned like the first did not fill the temple of Solomon. However richly any building might be overlaid with gold, no one could say that it is filled with it. A building is filled with what it contains; a mint or treasure-house may be filled with gold: the temple of God was "filled,"we are told, with "the glory of the Lord."His creatures bring Him such things as they can offer; they bring Isa 60:6 "gold and incense;"they Psa 72:10 "bring presents"and "offer gifts;"they do it, moved by His Spirit, as acceptable to Him. God was never said to give these offerings to Himself.

Barnes: Hag 2:8

The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine - These words, which have occasioned some to think, that God, in speaking of the glory with which He should fill the house, meant our material riches, suggest the contrary. For silver was no ornament of the temple of Solomon. Everything was overlaid with gold. In the tabernacle there were bowls of silver, in Soloman’ s temple they and all were of gold 1Ki 7:50; 2Ch 4:8. Silver, we are expressly told, "was nothing accounted of 1Ki 10:21 in the days of Solomon: he 1Ki 10:27. made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones - for abundance."Rather, as God says by the Psalmist Psa 50:10-12, "Every beast of the forest is Mine, so are the cattle upon a thousand hills: I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is Mine and the fullness thereof:"so here He tells them, that for the glory of His house He needed not gold or silver: for all the wealth of the world is His. They had no ground "to grieve then, that they could not equal the magnificence of Solomon who had abundance of gold and silver."All was God’ s. He would fill it with divine glory. The Desire of all nations, Christ, should come, and be a glory, to which all created glory is nothing.

"God says really and truly, that the silver and gold is His, which in utmost bounty He created, and in His most just government administers, so that, without His will and dominion, neither can the bad have gold and silver for the punishment of avarice, nor the good for the use of mercy. Its abundance does not inflate the good, nor its want crush them: but the bad, when bestowed, it blinds: when taken away, it tortures."

"It is as if He would say, Think not the temple inglorious, because, may be, it will have no portion of gold or silver, and their splendor. I need not such things. How should I? "For Mine is the silver and Mine the gold, saith the Lord Almighty."I seek rather true worshipers: with their brightness will I guild this temple. Let him come who hath right faith, is adorned by graces, gleams with love for Me, is pure in heart, poor in spirit, compassionate and good.""These make the temple, i. e., the Church, glorious and renowned, being glorified by Christ. For they have learned to pray, Psa 90:17. "The glory of the Lord our God be upon us."

Barnes: Hag 2:9

The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former - or, perhaps, more probably, "the later glory of this house shall be greater than the former;"for he had already spoken of the present temple, as identical with that before the captivity . "Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory, anti how do you see it now?"He had spoken of its "first glory."Now he says, in contrast, its later glory should be greater than that of its most glorious times. In this case the question, whether the temple of tiered was a different material building from that of Zerubbabel, falls away.

In either case, the contrast is between two things, either the temple in that its former estate, and this its latter estate after the captivity, or the two temples of Solomon and Zerubbabel. There is no room for a third temple. God holds out no vain hopes. To comfort those distressed by the poverty of the house of God which they were building, God promises a glory to this house greater than before. A temple, erected, after this had lain waste above 1800 years, even if Antichrist were to come now and to erect a temple at Jerusalem, could be no fulfillment of this prophecy.

In material magnificence the temple of Solomon, built and adorned with all the treasures accumulated by David and enlarged by Solomon, far surpassed all which Herod, amid his attempts to give a material meaning to the prophecy, could do. His attempt shows how the eyes of the Jews were fixed on this prophecy, then when it was about to be fulfilled. While taking pains, through the gradualness of his rebuilding, to preserve the identity of the fabric, he lavished his wealth, to draw off their thoughts from the king, whom the Jews looked for, to himself. The friendship of the Romans who were lords of all, was to replace the "all nations,"of whom Haggai spoke; he pointed also to the length of peace, the possession of wealth, the greatness of revenues, the surpassing expenditure beyond those before. A small section of Erastians admitted these claims of the murderer of his sons.

The Jews generally were not diverted from looking on to Him who should come. Those five things, the absence whereof they felt, were connected with their atoning worhip or God’ s presence among them; "the ark with the mercy-seat and the cherubim, the Urim and Tummin, the fire from heaven, the Shechinah, the Holy Spirit."Material magnificence could not replace spiritual glory. The explanations of the great Jewish authorities, that the second temple was superior to the first in structure (which was untrue) or in duration, were laid aside by Jews who had any other solution wherewith to satisfy themselves. "The Shechinah and the five precious things,"says one, "which, according to our wise of blessed memory, were in it, and not in the second house, raised and exalted it beyond compare."Another says, "When Haggai saith, ‘ greater shall be the glory of this later house than the first,’ how is it; that the house which Zerubbabel built through the income which the king of Persia gave them was more glorious than the house which Solomon built? And though it is said that the building which Herod made, was exceeding beautiful and rich, we should not think that it was in its beauty like to the house which Solomon built. For what the wise of blessed memory have said of the beauty of the house of Herod is in relation to the house which Zerubbabel built. How much more, since Scripture saith not, ‘ Great shall be the beauty or the wealth of this latter house above the first,’ but the glory: and the glory is not the wealth or the beauty, or the largeness of the dimensions of the building, as they said in their interpretations, for the ‘ glory’ is in truth spoken of the glory of God, which filled the tabernacle, after it was set up, and of the glory of God which filled the house of God, which Solomon built, when he brought the ark into the holy of holies, which is the Divine cloud and the Light supreme, which came down thither in the eyes of all the people, and it is said, ‘ And it was when the priests came out of the Italy place, the cloud filled the house of God, and the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of God filled the house of God.’ And this glory was not in the second house.

And how shall it be said, if so, ‘ great shall be the glory of this later house above the first?’ "The poor unconverted Jew did not know the answer to his question: "Through the presence of God, in the substance of our flesh; through the son given to us, Whose name should be Mighty God."The glory of this temple was in Him Who Joh 1:14. was made Flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.""There Christ, the Son of God, was, as a Child, offered to God: there He sat in the midst of the Doctors; there He taught and revealed things, hidden from the foundation of the world. The glory of the temple of Solomon was, that in it the majesty of God appeared, veiling itself in a cloud: in this, that same Majesty showed itself, in very deed united with the Flesh, visible to sight: so that Jesus Himself said, Joh 14:9. "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."This it was which Malachi sang with joy Mal 3:1, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in."

And in this place I will give peace - Temporal peace they had now, nor was there any prospect of its being disturbed. They were quiet subjects of the Persiam empire, which included also all their former enemies, greater or less. Alexander subdued all the bordering countries which did not yield, but spared themselves. Temporal peace then was nothing, to be then given them, for they had it. In later times they had it not. The temple itself was profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Macc. 1:39, 40). "Her sanctuary was laid waste like a wilderness. As had been her glory, so was her dishonor increased."Again by Pompey (Josephus, Ant. xiv. 4. 4. B. J. i. 7.) by Crassus (Josephus, Ant. xiv. 7. 1. B. J. i. 9. 8), the Parthians (Josephus, Ant. xiv. 13. 3. 4.) before it was destroyed by Titus and the Romans. Jews saw this and, knowing nothing of the peace in Jesus, argued from the absence of outward peace, that the prophecy was not fulfilled under the second temple. "What Scripture says, ‘ and in this place I will give peace,’ is opposed to their interpretation. For all the days of the duration of the second house were "in strait of times and not in peace,"as was written in Daniel, "and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again and the fosse, and in strait of time,"and, as I said, in the time of Herod there was no peace whatever, for the sword did not depart from his house to the day of his death; and after his death the hatred among the Jews increased, and the Gentiles straitened them, until they were destroyed from the face of the earth."

But spiritual peace is, throughout prophecy, part of the promise of the Gospel. Christ Himself was to be Isa 9:6-7 "the Prince of peace: of the increase of His government and of His peace there was to be no end;"in His days Psa 72:3, Psa 72:7 "the mountains were to bring peace to the people; there should be abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth; the work of righteousness was to be peace Isa 32:17, the chastisement of our peace (that which obtained it) was upon Him"Isa 53:5, "great should be the peace of her children"Isa 54:13, in the Gospel God would give peace, true peace, to the "far off and the near"Isa 57:19. He would extend Isa 66:12 "peace to her like a river:"the good things of the Gospel was "the publishing of peace"Isa 52:7. The Gospel is described as Ezra 34:25, "a covenant of peace:"the promised king Zec 9:10 "shall speak peace to the Pagan;"He himself should be "our peace"Mic 5:5. And when He was born, the angels proclaimed Luk 2:14 "on earth peace, goodwill toward men"Luk 1:79. "The Dayspring from on high visited us, to guide our feet into the way of peace."He Himself says Joh 14:27, "My peace I leave with you."He spake, that Joh 16:33 "in Me ye might have peace."Peter sums up "the word which God sent unto the children of Israel, as Act 10:36 preaching peace by Jesus Christ Rom 14:17. The kingdom of God is joy and peace Eph 2:14-15, Eph 2:17; Christ is our peace; made peace; preaches peace. God calleth us to peace"1Co 7:15 in the Gospel Rom 5:1, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord Gal 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace."Spiritual peace being thus prominent in the Gospel and in prophecy, as the gift of God, it were unnatural to explain the peace which God promised here to give, as other than He promised elsewhere; peace in Him who is "our peace, Jesus Christ."

"Peace and tranquility of mind is above all glory of the house; because peace passeth all understanding. This is peace above peace, which shall be given after the third shaking of heaven sea earth, dry land, when He shall destroy all powers anti principalities (in the day of judgment). - And so shall there be peace throughout, that, no bodily passions or hindrances of unbelieving mind resisting, Christ shall be all in all, exhibiting the hearts of all subdued to the Father."

Poole: Hag 2:1

Speak now once again acquaint them with what I now impart for their encouragement.

To Zerubbabel & c.: see Hag 1:1,12 .

Speak now once again acquaint them with what I now impart for their encouragement.

To Zerubbabel & c.: see Hag 1:1,12 .

Poole: Hag 2:2

Speak now once again acquaint them with what I now impart for their encouragement.

To Zerubbabel & c.: see Hag 1:1,12 .

Speak now once again acquaint them with what I now impart for their encouragement.

To Zerubbabel & c.: see Hag 1:1,12 .

Poole: Hag 2:3

Who is left among you? there are surely some that are of that age as to have seen the temple which our father’ s sins, God’ s just displeasure, and the Chaldean malice burnt; who are they? and where may they be found? This question implieth there were such, and by Ezr 3:12,13 it appears there were many, for the cries and sobs of them equalled the shouts of the younger, who rejoiced to see the foundations of the second house laid.

That saw took notice of it then, and remember it now, that were of such age and knowledge as to remember what was standing in its glory one hundred and fifty years ago, if some conjecture aright, but, what is nearer to truth, who remember some fourscore years past, who are about one hundred years of age.

This house the house of God, the temple built by Solomon.

In her first glory in the stately structure of it, in the rich adornings of it, in the unparalleled skill and curiosity of its workmanship, when it was the glory of the world.

How do ye see it now? do you see the same glorious structure going forward? have you expectation of one equal to the former temple? You cannot but recall the former to mind, and make your judgment of this by that.

Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? do you not judge this second nothing comparable with the first? you are ready to say, (in proverbial speech,) It is nothing to it.

Who is left among you? there are surely some that are of that age as to have seen the temple which our father’ s sins, God’ s just displeasure, and the Chaldean malice burnt; who are they? and where may they be found? This question implieth there were such, and by Ezr 3:12,13 it appears there were many, for the cries and sobs of them equalled the shouts of the younger, who rejoiced to see the foundations of the second house laid.

That saw took notice of it then, and remember it now, that were of such age and knowledge as to remember what was standing in its glory one hundred and fifty years ago, if some conjecture aright, but, what is nearer to truth, who remember some fourscore years past, who are about one hundred years of age.

This house the house of God, the temple built by Solomon.

In her first glory in the stately structure of it, in the rich adornings of it, in the unparalleled skill and curiosity of its workmanship, when it was the glory of the world.

How do ye see it now? do you see the same glorious structure going forward? have you expectation of one equal to the former temple? You cannot but recall the former to mind, and make your judgment of this by that.

Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? do you not judge this second nothing comparable with the first? you are ready to say, (in proverbial speech,) It is nothing to it.

Who is left among you? there are surely some that are of that age as to have seen the temple which our father’ s sins, God’ s just displeasure, and the Chaldean malice burnt; who are they? and where may they be found? This question implieth there were such, and by Ezr 3:12,13 it appears there were many, for the cries and sobs of them equalled the shouts of the younger, who rejoiced to see the foundations of the second house laid.

That saw took notice of it then, and remember it now, that were of such age and knowledge as to remember what was standing in its glory one hundred and fifty years ago, if some conjecture aright, but, what is nearer to truth, who remember some fourscore years past, who are about one hundred years of age.

This house the house of God, the temple built by Solomon.

In her first glory in the stately structure of it, in the rich adornings of it, in the unparalleled skill and curiosity of its workmanship, when it was the glory of the world.

How do ye see it now? do you see the same glorious structure going forward? have you expectation of one equal to the former temple? You cannot but recall the former to mind, and make your judgment of this by that.

Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? do you not judge this second nothing comparable with the first? you are ready to say, (in proverbial speech,) It is nothing to it.

Who is left among you? there are surely some that are of that age as to have seen the temple which our father’ s sins, God’ s just displeasure, and the Chaldean malice burnt; who are they? and where may they be found? This question implieth there were such, and by Ezr 3:12,13 it appears there were many, for the cries and sobs of them equalled the shouts of the younger, who rejoiced to see the foundations of the second house laid.

That saw took notice of it then, and remember it now, that were of such age and knowledge as to remember what was standing in its glory one hundred and fifty years ago, if some conjecture aright, but, what is nearer to truth, who remember some fourscore years past, who are about one hundred years of age.

This house the house of God, the temple built by Solomon.

In her first glory in the stately structure of it, in the rich adornings of it, in the unparalleled skill and curiosity of its workmanship, when it was the glory of the world.

How do ye see it now? do you see the same glorious structure going forward? have you expectation of one equal to the former temple? You cannot but recall the former to mind, and make your judgment of this by that.

Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? do you not judge this second nothing comparable with the first? you are ready to say, (in proverbial speech,) It is nothing to it.

Poole: Hag 2:4

In this juncture, though old men weep for the disproportion of the two temples, yet now be strong; be of good courage yourselves, O Zerubbabel, and thou, O Joshua, and encourage others by your example, animate each other, that all the people of the land may take heart with you.

And work forthwith set about the building of the temple.

For I am with you both to defend you from enemies, to supply you with necessaries, to bless and accept you: see Hag 1:1 .

Poole: Hag 2:5

The word either the word of promise to give them his presence, and to carry them through all opposition, or, the Word, the Son of God, promised to them and us; so it refers to Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen.

That I covenanted with you in solemnest manner reduced to the form and model of a covenant, that it might be sure and firm to you, as to your fathers, in whose time I made this covenant, and with you in them.

When ye came out of Egypt when I brought you out of Egypt, the house of bondage.

My spirit of strength and courage, of wisdom and understanding, of zeal and fervency, to carry you through this work, remaineth among you; still doth dwell in you, shall be continued to you, and give direction and success.

Fear ye not let no discouraging surmises settle in your mind or weaken your hands. There were as many improbabilities lay in bar to your getting out of Egypt, yet my word, covenant, and Spirit overcame all; fear not therefore, I am the same, and with you, as with your father’ s.

Poole: Hag 2:6

Yet once after many repetitions and confirmations of the new covenant, one more repetition, and but one more, rests to be made.

It is a little while comparatively it was little; though five hundred and seventeen years from the second of Darius Hystaspes to the incarnation of Christ, a long time to us, who are short-lived, and short-sighted, but a little time compared with that between the first promise to Adam and Christ’ s coming; or take any other shorter period, as between Abraham or David and Christ, this last period is short, a little while.

I will shake whether it be metaphorical or literal, it was verified at the time of Christ’ s coming into the world. After the return of the captivity, what with the commotions among the Grecians, Persians, and Romans, which began soon after this time, (the prophet points at this,) it was metaphorically fulfilled, all states were shaken either with invasions from abroad, or intestine dissensions among themselves: literally it was fulfilled by prodigies, and earthquakes, &c., as some have observed and recounted, at the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ.

The heavens either states and governments of the world, or church affairs, which in Scripture are called the heavens; or the material heavens, and the firmament.

The earth which, either figuratively or literally taken, will agree well with the text, and the history of times.

The sea one part of that which is called earth, this lower globe.

The dry land the other part of this inferior world; and both may, as former words, be literally or figuratively taken, and which better I do not undertake to determine.

Poole: Hag 2:7

I will shake all nations which was literally fulfilled in the overthrow of the Persian monarchy by the Grecians, in the civil wars and succeeding troubles among Alexander’ s successors, the growth of the Roman power by the subduing their neighbours, and their dissensions and homebred wars, all hushed by Augustus a little before Christ’ s birth. These convulsions began a little after this prophecy, and continued long, in which the Jews, under the Maccabees, had their share.

The Desire of all nations shall come Christ, the most desirable, because the most helpful to all nations, which some proselytes in all ages did come to the knowledge of, and did earnestly desire; and who was desired by all that knew their own misery. and his sufficiency to save them, who was to be the light of the Gentiles as well as the glory of his people Israel. The Messiah’ s coming (the Jews do own) is foretold in this text, yet will they not see how this

yet a little while is long since past and the true Messiah long since come.

I will fill this house which you now build, this second temple. The first had a fulness of glory in its magnificent structure, rich ornaments, and costly sacrifices, but this was a worldly glory; that which is here promised is a heavenly glory from the presence of Christ in it. He that was the brightness of his Father’ s glory, who is the glory of the church, appeareth in this second temple.

With glory of my presence, preaching, healing, and comforting, saith the Messiah, the King of glory, who entered these everlasting doors, Psa 24:7,8 . This was before the desolation of this temple by the Romans, a demonstration that the Messiah should come whilst this second temple stood. But now the hardened Jew seeks to evade this text.

Saith the Lord of hosts: this is a solemn sealing the certainty of the thing in this prophet, and Zechariah, and Malachi, who style him Lord of hosts near a hundred times.

I will shake all nations which was literally fulfilled in the overthrow of the Persian monarchy by the Grecians, in the civil wars and succeeding troubles among Alexander’ s successors, the growth of the Roman power by the subduing their neighbours, and their dissensions and homebred wars, all hushed by Augustus a little before Christ’ s birth. These convulsions began a little after this prophecy, and continued long, in which the Jews, under the Maccabees, had their share.

The Desire of all nations shall come Christ, the most desirable, because the most helpful to all nations, which some proselytes in all ages did come to the knowledge of, and did earnestly desire; and who was desired by all that knew their own misery. and his sufficiency to save them, who was to be the light of the Gentiles as well as the glory of his people Israel. The Messiah’ s coming (the Jews do own) is foretold in this text, yet will they not see how this

yet a little while is long since past and the true Messiah long since come.

I will fill this house which you now build, this second temple. The first had a fulness of glory in its magnificent structure, rich ornaments, and costly sacrifices, but this was a worldly glory; that which is here promised is a heavenly glory from the presence of Christ in it. He that was the brightness of his Father’ s glory, who is the glory of the church, appeareth in this second temple.

With glory of my presence, preaching, healing, and comforting, saith the Messiah, the King of glory, who entered these everlasting doors, Psa 24:7,8 . This was before the desolation of this temple by the Romans, a demonstration that the Messiah should come whilst this second temple stood. But now the hardened Jew seeks to evade this text.

Saith the Lord of hosts: this is a solemn sealing the certainty of the thing in this prophet, and Zechariah, and Malachi, who style him Lord of hosts near a hundred times.

Poole: Hag 2:8

The right as indisputable, the treasures of both as full and large, doubt not therefore but I will give enough to build this house; and I could beautify it with these as much as the first temple, but I intend a greater glory. I am the Proprietor, others but trustees; I have the full disposal of all.

Poole: Hag 2:9

The glory which God intends to put upon this temple. Solomon. and a rich people, with incredible spoils taken from conquered nations, gave a glory to the first house, but God himself will give the glory of this house.

This latter house which poor captives and feudatory governors do build, this second temple: the prophet speaks of it as if it were already a house, whereas it was now to be built. What God accounts a glory, must be somewhat better than silver and gold.

Greater than of the former more truly glory, and in higher degrees; the least of Christ is greater glory than all the magnificence of Solomon. There were no more but two houses built by God’ s appointment, into the latter of which the Messiah was personally to come, as Mal 3:1 : therefore he came before that latter temple was destroyed, that is, 1684 years ago, when at two months old he was presented in the temple, embraced and confessed by Simeon, some seventy years before the temple was burnt by the Romans.

In this place in my house, type of Christ, and who is the glory of it.

Will I give peace a spiritual, internal, and heavenly peace, in pardoning guilt and destroying sin, which displeaseth God, and disquieteth man himself. Christ made peace on his cross, preached or published it to the world, and gives it to them by the power of his Spirit.

Saith the Lord of hosts solemnly avowed by the Lord of hosts, who cannot deceive, or be deceived.

Haydock: Hag 2:1

By occasion of a soul. That is, by having touched the dead: in which case, according to the prescription of the law, (Numbers xix. 13, 22.) a person not only became unclean himself, but made everything that he touched unclean. The prophet applies all this to the people, whose souls remained unclean by neglecting the temple of God; and therefore were not sanctified by the flesh they offered in sacrifice, but rather defiled their sacrifices by approaching to them in the state of uncleanness. (Challoner)

Haydock: Hag 2:1

In, &c. This should be joined with the preceding chapter. (Calmet) ---

They began the new work at this time, and on the 21st of the seventh month the prophet had a fresh revelation. (Worthington)

Haydock: Hag 2:4

Glory. The temple had been destroyed sixty-nine years before, so that many might have seen it. When the second temple was dedicated, (Calmet) or founded, (Haydock) two years after the captivity, cries of grief and of joy were heard, 1 Esdras iii. 12.

Haydock: Hag 2:7

Little. Christ was born 515 years afterwards. The world had been disturbed by Alexander and by the Romans, yet peace then prevailed. All nature acknowledged the power of Jesus Christ, and the world was reformed. Another commotion will take place at his second coming. (Calmet)

Haydock: Hag 2:8

Desired. Jacob styles him the expectation of nations, (Genesis xlix.) because He was wanting, and always necessary for all. (Worthington) ---

Thus the sick desire a remedy, though they know not what it is. The Gentiles were ignorant of the Messias; yet he was still desirable and most lovely, Canticle of Canticles v. 16. (Calmet) ---

Many also, like Job, had a lively expectation of their Redeemer's coming from the tradition of the patriarchs. (Haydock) ---

Hebrew, "the desires of all nations shall come:" (Haydock) venient. Septuagint, "the chosen things," &c. Christ shall come for all, (Calmet) and the elect shall meet him with eagerness. (Haydock) ---

In vain do the Jews attempt to contest this prediction. Was not the Messias to be desired? and has not Jesus Christ procured the greatest advantages for mankind?

Gill: Hag 2:1

In the seventh month,.... The month Tisri, which answers to part of September and part of October:

in the one and twentieth day of the month; being a month, wanting three days, from the time the Jews came and worked in the house of the Lord, Hag 1:14 it was toward the close of the feast of tabernacles: see Lev 23:34,

came the word of the Lord by the Prophet Haggai; the word of prophecy, as the Targum: this was from the Lord, not from the prophet himself; he was only the messenger sent with it to deliver it:

saying; to him the prophet, giving him orders as follow:

Gill: Hag 2:2

Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,.... Of whom, his descent and dignity; see Gill on Hag 1:1. The Septuagint version wrongly renders it "of the tribe of Judah"; in which it is followed by the Arabic version; for, though he was of the tribe of Judah, this does not sufficiently distinguish him; nor does it answer to the word here used, which is expressive of his office and dignity. The Vulgate Latin version, Luther, and Castalio, omit the particle נא, rendered "now", which is very emphatic. The prophet is ordered to go and say what he is bid, directly, immediately, at once, without any delay; the very day before mentioned, yea, at that very instant or moment, the people being now at work, under the eye of their governor; in order to remove an offence, which might discourage them in their work, taken from the meanness of the building, in comparison of the former temple:

and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people; these, besides the two former, even the whole body of the people, the remnant that were come out of the captivity of Babylon:

saying; to the above persons, as follows:

Gill: Hag 2:3

Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory?.... Not taken away by death, yet alive, and dwelling among them; and who lived before the destruction of the first temple, built by Solomon; and has seen it in all its magnificence; its grand and noble structure; its stately pillars; its carved work, and decorations of gold. This shows that it was not in the times of Darius Nothus, but of Darius Hystaspis, that Haggai prophesied: those who go the former way make these men to have lived near two hundred years at least, which was greatly beyond the common time of man's life in that age; or consider these words as a mere supposition, that, if there were or had been such persons then living, this building, in comparison of the former, must have appeared mean and contemptible unto them: but the words manifestly imply that there were persons among them then living, who had seen Solomon's temple in all its glory; and who are particularly and personally addressed in the following clauses; and of whom there might be several at this time, going the latter way; for the seventy years' captivity are to be reckoned from the fourth year of Jehoiakim, in which the captivity began, and which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, Jer 25:1 but it was not until the nineteenth year of his reign that the temple, was burnt by him, Jer 52:12 and the time of Haggai's prophesying being about seventeen or eighteen years after the proclamation of Cyrus, when the seventy years' captivity ended; this shows that it was scarcely seventy years from the time the temple was destroyed; and therefore it may be reasonably supposed there were several ancient persons living that could remember to have seen it; and it is certain that there were a great number of such living that returned from Babylon, who wept when they saw the foundation of the second temple laid, which was but fifteen years before this, Ezr 3:12 some of whom, in all probability, were now alive, yea, it is certain there were, to whom the following questions were put:

and how do ye see it now? is not this that is building very different from that? does it promise anything like it? what ideas have you of it? can you conceive in your minds that it will ever rise up to such grandeur and stateliness as the former? what is your judgment, and what your sentiments concerning it? can you think of it with equal delight and pleasure as of the former?

is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? do not you think that it is not to be mentioned, or once named, in comparison of the former temple? or that a man had as good say nothing at all, as to attempt a comparison of them? or that this building and nothing are alike? and that the one is a nonentity, as well as the other, comparatively speaking, when set in competition with the first temple? and are not you of opinion that the people had as good do nothing, and that in effect they are doing nothing, and all their labour lost, who are working in this house? no answer is returned, nor any waited for: but it is as if the Lord had said, I, who am the omniscient God, the discerner of the thoughts of men, know that these are your sentiments, and these the reasonings of your minds; and but now lest discovering these thoughts of theirs, and speaking out their minds freely as they might, which would tend to discourage the governors and the people in carrying on the work they had engaged in; the Lord by the prophet says to them, as follows:

Gill: Hag 2:4

Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord,.... Take heart, be of good courage, do not be dismayed at these things; though, the building may be contemptible in the eyes of some, nevertheless go on with it manfully and vigorously; let, none despise the day of small things; for from these low beginnings great things will arise, and glorious things will follow, as hereafter predicted; see Zec 4:9 attend this, work diligently, desist not from it, continue to preside over it, and encourage the people in it; let not thine heart faint, or thine hands be slack; act the part of man, of a good man, and of a governor:

and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech the high priest; do not be disheartened at what the ancients think and say concerning this temple, in which thou art to officiate as a high priest; and as a type of him who shall come into this house, and so give it a glory the former never had; continue to give the necessary instructions to the builders, that everything may be done in proper order, and to answer their end and use in the service of the priesthood; faint not, nor be discouraged, but act according to thy character, and show thyself worthy of the office with which thou art invested; consider in whose name thou actest?, whose priest thou art, and in whose service thou art employed:

and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord; let not your hearts sink, or spirits fail, at hearing what the more ancient among you say of the difference between this and the former building, which your eyes never saw; do not desist from your work on this account, but go on with it; consider what God has done for you, in bringing you out of captivity, and into your own land, and to the enjoyment of your civil privileges; consider the obligations you lie under to build a house for God; that this is not only a piece of gratitude, and shows a sense of mercies received; but that it is for the glory of God, for your spiritual profit and advantage, and for the use and good of future posterity; quit yourselves therefore like men, and be strong; see Jos 1:6,

and work; that is, continue working, for they were at work; but there was danger of their leaving off working, being discouraged at what the ancient people said; and therefore they are exhorted to go on in their work, and go through it, and finish it; for so the word here used signifies, "and do" ^e; that is, the work thoroughly and effectually; or, as others render it, "and perfect" ^f the work begun, and leave it not unfinished. Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, connect this word with the beginning of the following verse, thus, "and do the word, or thing, which I covenanted with you", &c. Hag 2:5; that is, observe the law, and do the commandment then given; but very wrongly: nor is it only to be considered as directed to the people, but to the prince and priest also; for they had all work to do in the house of the Lord, as all ranks and degrees of men now have in the church of Christ; of which that house was typical: the prince or civil magistrate, not to prescribe laws and rules to be observed in it, which only belongs to Christ, who is the sole Head, King, and Lawgiver; but to attend the service of it, to protect and defend it, to promote the interest of it, and distribute cheerfully to the maintenance of its ministers, and to the necessities of the poor saints. Priests or ministers of the word are to work; they are to labour in the word and doctrine; in preaching the Gospel; administering ordinances; governing the church; comforting saints; reproving vice, and refuting error: deacons are to do their work, in taking care of the poor, and minding the secular affairs of the church: and all private Christians are to work, to labour in prayer for the good of it; to hear the word, attend on all ordinances, and hold fast the profession of their faith; all which is to be done in the strength and grace of Christ, without dependence on it, or seeking justification and salvation by it; encouraged, as the Jews are here, with the promise of the divine Presence:

for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts; to help in every service, and to protect from all enemies; and this makes the work and service of the Lord's house pleasant and delightful, and secures from all doubts and fears, faintings and misgivings of heart. This is to be understood of God the Father, the Lord of armies above and below; and if he is for and with his people, they have nothing to fear from those that are against them; or to be discouraged in his service. The Targum wrongly interprets this of the Word of the Lord, since he is meant in the next verse Hag 2:5.

Gill: Hag 2:5

According to the Word that I covenanted with you, when ye came out of Egypt,.... Or rather, "with the Word, in or with whom I covenanted" ^g, &c. as some render it; that is, Christ, the essential Word, who was promised to the people of Israel at that time, Deu 18:15 and in whom all the promises are, and the covenant of grace itself; and which covenant was indeed made with him from eternity, but was made manifest, or more clearly manifest, to the Jewish ancestors, when they came out of Egypt: now it is here promised, for the encouragement of the Jews to go in the work of the Lord in building the temple, that this divine Word should be with them also, to counsel, assist, strengthen, and protect them; even he who went before their fathers in the wilderness in a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night; the Angel of God's presence, that redeemed, saved, and carried them all the days of old; the Word that was in the beginning with God, and was God; and by whom all things were created at first; and who would, as since he has, become flesh, and dwell among them, and appear in this very temple they were now building; and who will be with all his churches, ministers, and people, unto the end of the world:

so my Spirit remaineth among you: or rather, "and", or "also, my Spirit standeth", continueth "in the midst of you" ^h; not only Jehovah the Father, and his divine Logos or Word, were with them; but his Spirit also, his Holy Spirit, the third Person in the Trinity, of which these words are a proof; the same Spirit which was in Moses and others in his time, for the building of the tabernacle, is now promised unto, and should continue with, the builders of this temple; as a Spirit of wisdom and counsel to direct them, and as a Spirit of might and power to strengthen and assist them: and so he is, and will be, in the churches of Christ, and in the midst of his people, to assist the ministers of the word in preaching, the people in hearing, praying, and praising; to carry on his own work in them; to be the Comforter of them, and the seal, earnest, and pledge of their future glory; nor does he, nor ever will he, depart from them; see Isa 59:21,

fear ye not: succeeding in the work, and finishing it; nor be dismayed at what the ancient people had said; nor be afraid of enemies, who did all they could to hinder and discourage them from going on with their work; and indeed there is no reason to fear, let the service be what it will the Lord employs his people in; if he, Father, Son, and Spirit, are with them; see Isa 41:10.

Gill: Hag 2:6

For thus saith the Lord of hosts;.... For the further encouragement of the builders of the temple, they are told, from the Lord of hosts, that in a little time, when such circumstances should meet as are here pointed at, the Messiah should come, and appear in this house, and give it a greater glory than ever Solomon's temple had; for that this passage is to be understood of the Messiah and his times is clear from the apostle's application of it, Heb 12:25 and even the ancient Jews themselves understood it of the Messiah, particularly R. Aquiba ⁱ, who lived in the times of Bar Cozbi, the false Messiah; though the more modern ones, perceiving how they are embarrassed with it; to support their hypothesis, shift it off from him:

Yet once, it is a little while: or, "once more", as the apostle in the above place quotes it; which suggests that the Lord had before done something of the kind, that follows, shaking the heavens, &c. as at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai; and would do the same again, and more abundantly in the times of the Gospel, or of the Messiah. Jarchi interprets this of one trouble by the Grecian monarchy after the Persian, which would not last long: his note is,

"yet once, &c. after that this kingdom of Persia that rules over you is ended, yet one shall rise up to rule over you, to distress you, the kingdom of Greece; but its government shall be but a little time;''

and not very foreign from this sense does Bishop Chandler ^k render the words, "after one kingdom (the Grecian) it is a little while; (or after that) I will shake all the heavens", &c.; and though it was five hundred years from this prophecy to the incarnation of Christ: yet this was but a little while with God, with whom a thousand years are as one day; and indeed with men it was but a short time, when compared with the first promise of his coming at the beginning of the world; or with the shaking of the earth at the giving of the law, soon after Israel came out of Egypt:

and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; which either intends the changes and revolutions made in the several kingdoms and nations of the world, between this prophecy and the coming of Christ, and which soon began to take place; for the Persian monarchy, now flourishing, was quickly shook and subdued by the Grecians; and in a little time the Grecian monarchy was destroyed by the Romans; and what changes they made in each of the nations of the world is well known: or else this designs the wonderful things that were done in the heavens, earth, and sea, at the birth of Christ, during his life, and at his death: at his birth a new star appeared in the heavens, which brought the wise men from the east to visit him; the angels of heaven descended, and sung Glory to God in the highest; Herod and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were shaken, moved, and troubled at the tidings of his birth; yea, people in all parts of Judea were in motion to be taxed in their respective cities at this time: stormy winds were raised, which agitated the waters of the sea in his lifetime; on which he walked, and which he rebuked; and this showed him to be the mighty God: at his death the heavens were darkened, the earth quaked, and rocks were rent asunder: if any particular earthquake about this time should be thought to be intended, the most terrible one was that which happened A. D. 17, when Coelius Rufus and Pomponius Flaccus were consuls, which destroyed twelve cities of Asia ^l; and these being near the sea, caused a motion there also. The apostle applies these words to the change made in the worship of God by the coming of Christ, when the carnal ordinances of the law were removed, and evangelical ordinances instituted, which shall remain until his second coming, Heb 12:26.

Gill: Hag 2:7

And I will shake all nations,.... By changing their governors, and forms of government; which was done by the Romans, when subdued by them; and by bringing in wars among them, which produced those changes; and by civil wars among the Romans themselves, in the several nations that belonged to them, which were notorious a little before the coming of Christ: or else this was to be done, and was done, by the preaching of the Gospel, both in Judea, and in the Gentile world, when all the inhabitants thereof were shaken by it, in one sense or another; some had their hearts and consciences shaken by the Spirit and grace of God through it, and were brought to embrace it, and profess it; yea, were brought to Christ, to yield obedience to him, his truths and ordinances; and others were moved with envy, wrath, and indignation at it, and rose up to oppose it, and stop the progress of it:

and the desire of all nations shall come; not the desirable things of all nations, or them with them, as their gold and silver; and which is the sense of Jarchi, Kimchi, and Aben Ezra; but this is contrary to the syntax of the words, to the context, Hag 2:8, and to facts; and, if true, would not have given this temple a greater glory than Solomon's: nor the elect of God, as others, brought in through the preaching of the Gospel; who are indeed the desire of God, he takes pleasure in them; and of Christ, whose delights have been always in them; and of the blessed Spirit, whose love to them, and esteem of them, are very manifest; and with the saints they are the excellent in the earth, in whom is all their delight: yet not they, but one far more glorious and excellent, is intended, even the Messiah, in whom all nations of the earth were to be blessed; and who, so far as he was known by good men or proselytes among the Gentiles, was desired by them, as by Job, and others; and who, when he came, brought all good things with him; and has all blessings in him, that may make him desirable to men, being what they want; and though he is not in fact desired by all, yet of right he should be, and to all sensible sinners he is; even above all persons and things in the whole world; on account of his excellencies and glories; his mediatorial qualifications; his names, offices, and relations; the blessings of grace in him; the works done by him; his truths and ordinances, people, ways, and worship: and when it is said, he "shall come", the meaning is, not only into the world by assumption of nature, to obtain redemption for his people; but into this temple now building, in that nature assumed; where he appeared at the presentation of him by his parents; and at the passover, when twelve years of age; and when he drove out the buyers and sellers from it; and when he often taught in it. The word "come" is in the plural number; and may denote his frequent coming thither, as well as in different respects; his personal coming; his spiritual coming; his coming to take vengeance on the Jews; and his last coming, of which some understand the words particularly:

and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts; alluding to the glory which filled the tabernacle of Moses, and the temple of Solomon, Exo 40:35 but that was but a shadowy glory, this a real one; here Christ appeared in person, who is the brightness of his Father's glory; here his glorious doctrines were taught, and glorious miracles wrought; and the Spirit of glory rested on the disciples, in his gifts and grace bestowed upon them in an extraordinary manner, on the day of Pentecost.

Gill: Hag 2:8

The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. This seems designed to anticipate an objection taken from the gold and silver, with which the first temple was either decorated, or were in gifts dedicated to it; and which, it might easily be foreseen, would be wanting in the second temple; and in answer to which the Lord observes, that all the gold and silver in the world were his, were made by him, and were at his dispose; and therefore whatever were bestowed upon the former temple was only giving him his own; what he had a prior right to, and was no accession of riches or honour to him; and so it would be the same, let what would be expended on this; and therefore it was an article very inconsiderable, and of little significance; nor did he regard, or was he delighted with anything of this kind; and, was he so disposed, he could easily command all the gold and silver in the world together, and bring it into this house, to enrich and adorn it, without doing any injury to any person; but these were things he delighted not in; and, besides, he had a far greater glory in view to put upon this house, as follows:

Gill: Hag 2:9

The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts,.... The "former", or first house, was the temple built by Solomon, which was a very glorious one, if we consider the vast treasure of riches laid up by David, and given to Solomon for the building of it; the great number of workmen employed in it; the stateliness of the fabric, the like to which was never seen, the model being drawn by the Lord himself; the decoration of it; the vessels in it; and, above all, the glory of the Lord that filled it, and continued in it; and yet this "latter" or second house exceeded it. It must be a glory very great indeed to exceed this! The Jews ^m themselves own there were several things wanting in the latter which were in the former, as the "ark", the "Urim" and "Thummim", the "fire" from heaven, the "Shechinah" (or, as in some books, the anointing oil, and, in others, the cherubim), and the "Holy Ghost": by one of their writers ⁿ, they are reckoned in this order, the ark, the mercy seat, and cherubim, one; the Shechinah or divine Majesty, the second; the Holy Ghost, which is prophecy, the third; Urim and Thummim the fourth: and the fire from heaven the fifth: what could there be in it to compensate the want of these, and put it upon a level, and even to cause it to excel the temple of Solomon? the excelling glory did not lie in the fabric; when the foundation of it was laid, the old men wept, because it came so short of the other; and, as the building rose, it was in their eyes as nothing; who were better judges than later Jews, who magnify the building of the second temple; depending upon the authority of Josephus ben Gorion, who is not to be trusted: nor did it lie in the duration of it, it continuing ten years longer, they say ^o, than the former; which, if true, could not answer to the deficiencies before mentioned; or be an encouragement to the builders to go on in their work: nor in the riches brought into it by the Gentiles in the times of the Maccabees, which was very inconsiderable; and could never make it equal to Solomon's temple, and much less preferable to it; nor by Alexander the great honouring it with his presence ^p; for surely Solomon was greater than he. It remains, that what gave it the greater glory was the personal presence of the Messiah in it, his doctrines, and his miracles:

and, or "for",

in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts; not temporal peace, for there was little of that during the second temple; witness the times of the Maccabees, and the wars with the Romans; but spiritual peace, through the blood and righteousness of Christ; peace with God; reconciliation for sin, through the sacrifice of the Son of God, in whom he is well pleased; yea, Christ himself may be meant, the Prince of peace, the Man the peace, who is our peace, Isa 9:6 the author of peace between God and men, between Jew and Gentile; the giver of spiritual and eternal peace: him the Lord gave, "put", and set in this place, the temple, as before observed; and where the Gospel of peace was preached, and from whence it went forth into all the world. The Arabic version adds,

"peace of soul, I say, to be possessed by everyone that labours to raise up this temple.''

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Hag 2:1

¹ tn Heb “In the seventh [month], on the twenty-first day of the month.”

sn The seventh month was the month Tishri, according to the modern (Julian) calendar October 17, 520 b.c. The twenty-first day of Tishri marked the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Num 29:32-34). It also coincided with the date 440 years earlier (960 b.c.) when Solomon finished building his temple (1 Kgs 6:38; 8:2).

² tc Heb “the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying.” The MT has בְּיַד (bÿyad, “by the hand of” = “through” [so NAB, NIV, NLT] as in 1:1, 3); the Murabba’at Dead Sea text reads אֶל (’el, “to”), perhaps because the following command is given to the prophet.

NET Notes: Hag 2:2

¹ tn Heb “say to”; NAB “Tell this to.”

² tn Many English versions have “Joshua (the) son of Jehozadak the high priest,” but this is subject to misunderstanding. See the note on the name “Jehozadak” at the end of v. 1.

NET Notes: Hag 2:3

¹ tn Heb “this house in its earlier splendor”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “in its former glory.”

sn Solomon’s temple was demolished in 586 b.c., 66 years prior to Haggai’s time. There surely would have been some older people who remembered the former splendor of that magnificent structure and who lamented the contrast to the small, unimpressive temple they were building (see Ezra 3:8-13).

NET Notes: Hag 2:4

¹ tn Heb “and take heart.” Although emphatic, the repetition of the verb is redundant in contemporary English style and has been left untranslated.

² tn Heb “the people of the land” (עַם הָאָרֶץ, ’am ha’arets); this is a technical term referring to free citizens as opposed to slaves.

NET Notes: Hag 2:5

¹ sn My spirit. It is theologically anachronistic to understand “spirit” here in the NT sense as a reference to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity; nevertheless during this postexilic period the conceptual groundwork was being laid for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit later revealed in the NT.

² tc The MT of v. 5 reads “with the word which I cut with you when you went out from Egypt and my spirit [which] stands in your midst, do not fear.” BHS proposes emending “with the word” to זֹאת הַבְּרִית (zo’t habbÿrit, “this is the covenant”) at the beginning of the verse. The proposed emendation makes excellent sense and is expected with the verb כָּרַת (karat, “cut” or “make” a covenant), but it has no textual support. Most English versions (including the present translation) therefore follow the MT here.

NET Notes: Hag 2:6

¹ tc The difficult MT reading עוֹד אַחַת מְעַט הִיא (’od ’akhat mÿ’at hi’, “yet once, it is little”; cf. NAB “One moment yet, a little while”) appears as “yet once” in the LXX, omitting the last two Hebrew words. However, the point being made is that the anticipated action is imminent; thus the repetition provides emphasis.

² tn Or “the heavens.” The same Hebrew word, שָׁמַיִם (shamayim), may be translated “sky” or “heavens” depending on the context. Although many English versions translate the term as “heavens” here, the other three elements present in this context (earth, sea, dry ground) suggest “sky” is in view.

NET Notes: Hag 2:7

¹ tn Heb “all the nations.”

² tn Though the subject here is singular (חֶמְדַּה, khemdah; “desire”), the preceding plural predicate mandates a collective subject, “desired (things)” or, better, an emendation to a plural form, חֲמֻדֹת (khamudot, “desirable [things],” hence “treasures”). Cf. ASV “the precious things”; NASB “the wealth”; NRSV “the treasure.” In the OT context this has no direct reference to the coming of the Messiah.

NET Notes: Hag 2:9

¹ tn Heb “greater will be the latter splendor of this house than the former”; NAB “greater will be the future glory.”

² tn In the Hebrew text there is an implicit play on words in the clause “in this place [i.e., Jerusalem] I will give peace”: in יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (yÿrushalayim) there will be שָׁלוֹם (shalom).

Geneva Bible: Hag 2:3

Who [is] left among you that saw this ^{( a )} house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? [is it] not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?

^{( a )} For the people according as had been prophesied in (Isa 2:2) and (Eze. 41:1-26), thought this temple should have been more excellent than Solomon's temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians, but the Prophets meant the spiritual Temple, the Church of Christ.

Geneva Bible: Hag 2:4

Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and ^{( b )} work: for I [am] with you, saith the LORD of hosts:

^{( b )} That is, go forward in building the temple.

Geneva Bible: Hag 2:6

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; ^{( c )} Yet once, it [is] a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry [land];

^{( c )} He exhorts them to patience though they do not see as yet this temple so glorious as the Prophets had declared: for this should be accomplished in Christ, by whom all things should be renewed.

Geneva Bible: Hag 2:7

And I will shake all nations, and ^{( d )} the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

^{( d )} Meaning Christ, whom all ought to look for and desire: or by desire he may signify all precious things, such as riches, and things like them.

Geneva Bible: Hag 2:8

The ^{( e )} silver [is] mine, and the gold [is] mine, saith the LORD of hosts.

^{( e )} Therefore when his time comes he can make all the treasures of the world to serve his purpose: but the glory of this second Temple does not consist of material things, neither can it be built.

Geneva Bible: Hag 2:9

The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give ^{( f )} peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

^{( f )} Meaning all spiritual blessings and felicity purchased by Christ; (Phi 4:7).

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Hag 2:1-23

1 He encourages the people to the work, by promise of greater glory to the second temple than was in the first.

10 In the type of holy things and unclean he shews their sins hindered the work.

20 God's promise to Zerubbabel.

MHCC: Hag 2:1-9

Those who are hearty in the Lord's service shall receive encouragement to proceed. But they could not build such a temple then, as Solomon built. Though our gracious God is pleased if we do as well as we can in his service, yet our proud hearts will scarcely let us be pleased, unless we do as well as others, whose abilities are far beyond ours. Encouragement is given the Jews to go on in the work notwithstanding. They have God with them, his Spirit and his special presence. Though he chastens their transgressions, his faithfulness does not fail. The Spirit still remained among them. And they shall have the Messiah among them shortly; " He that should come." Convulsions and changes would take place in the Jewish church and state, but first should come great revolutions and commotions among the nations. He shall come, as the Desire of all nations; desirable to all nations, for in him shall all the earth be blessed with the best of blessings; long expected and desired by all believers. The house they were building should be filled with glory, very far beyond Solomon's temple. This house shall be filled with glory of another nature. If we have silver and gold, we must serve and honour God with it, for the property is his. If we have not silver and gold, we must honour him with such as we have, and he will accept us. Let them be comforted that the glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former, in what would be beyond all the glories of the first house, the presence of the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lord of glory, personally, and in human nature. Nothing but the presence of the Son of God, in human form and nature, could fulfil this. Jesus is the Christ, is He that should come, and we are to look for no other. This prophecy alone is enough to silence the Jews, and condemn their obstinate rejection of Him, concerning whom all their prophets spake. If God be with us, peace is with us. But the Jews under the latter temple had much trouble; but this promise is fulfilled in that spiritual peace which Jesus Christ has by his blood purchased for all believers. All changes shall make way for Christ to be desired and valued by all nations. And the Jews shall have their eyes opened to behold how precious He is, whom they have hitherto rejected.

Matthew Henry: Hag 2:1-9

Here is, I. The date of this message, Hag 2:1. It was sent on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, when the builders had been about a month at work (since the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month), and had got it in some forwardness. Note, Those that are hearty in the service of God shall receive fresh encouragements from him to proceed in it, as their case calls for them. Set the wheels a going, and God will oil them.

II. The direction of this message, Hag 2:2. The encouragements here are sent to the same persons to whom the reproofs in the foregoing chapter are directed; for those that are wounded by the convictions of the word shall be healed and bound up by its consolations. Speak to Zerubbabel, and Joshua, and the residue of the people, the very same that obeyed the voice of the Lord (Jos 1:12) and whose spirits God stirred up to do so (Jos 1:14); to them are sent these words of comfort.

III. The message itself, in which observe,

1. The discouragements which those laboured under who were employed in this work. That which was such a damp upon them, and an alloy to their joy, when the foundation of the temple was laid, was still a clog upon them - that they could not build such a temple now as Solomon built, not so large, so stately, so sumptuous, a one as that was. This fetched tears from the eyes of many, when the dimensions of it were first laid (Ezr 3:12), and still it made the work go on heavily - that the glory of this house, in comparison with that of the former, was as nothing, Hag 2:3. It was now about seventy years since Solomon's temple was destroyed (for that was in the nineteenth year of the captivity, and this about the nineteenth after the captivity), so that there might be some yet alive who could remember to have seen it, and still they would be upbraiding themselves and their brethren with the great disparity between this house and that. One could remember the gold with which it was overlaid, another the precious stones with which it was garnished; one could describe the magnificence of the porch, another of the pillars - and where are these now? This weakened the hands of the builders; for, though our gracious God is pleased with us if we do in sincerity as well as we can in his service, yet our proud hearts will scarcely let us be pleased with ourselves unless we do as well as others whose abilities far exceed ours. And it is sometimes the fault of old people to discourage the services of the present age by crying up too much the performances and attainments of the former age, with which others should be provoked to emulation, but not exposed to contempt. Say not thou that the former days were better than these (Ecc 7:10), but thank God that there is any good in these, bad as they are.

2. The encouragement that is given them to go on in the work, notwithstanding (Hag 2:4): Yet now, though this house is likely to be much inferior to the former, be strong, O Zerubbabel! and be strong, O Joshua! Let not these leading men give way to this suggestion, nor be disheartened by it, but do as well as they can, when they cannot do so well as they would; and let all the people of the land be strong too, and work; and, if the leaders have but a good heart on it, it is hoped that the followers will have the better heart. Note, Those that work for God ought to exert themselves with vigour, and then to encourage themselves with hope that it will end well.

3. The grounds of these encouragements. God himself says to them, Fear you not (Hag 2:5), and he gives good reasons for it.

(1.) They have God with them, his Spirit and his special presence: Be strong, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts, Hag 2:4. This he had said before (Hag 1:13), I am with you. But we need to have these assurances repeated, that we may have strong consolation. The presence of God with us, as the Lord of hosts, is enough to silence all our fears and to help us over all the discouragements we may meet with in the way of our duty. The Jews had hosts against them, but they had the Lord of hosts with them, to take their part and plead their cause. He is with them; for, [1.] He adheres to his promise. His covenant is inviolable, and he will be always theirs, and will appear and act for them, according to the word that he covenanted with them when they came out of Egypt. Though he chastens them for their transgressions with the rod, yet he will not make his faithfulness to fail. [2.] He dwells among them by his Spirit, the Spirit of prophecy. When he first formed them into a people he gave his good Spirit to instruct them (Neh 9:20); and still the Spirit, though often grieved and provoked to withdraw, remained among them. It was the Spirit of God that stirred up their spirits to come out of Babylon (Ezr 1:5), and now to build the temple, Hag 1:14. Note, We have reason to be encouraged as long as we have the Spirit of God remaining among us to work upon us, for so long we have God with us to work for us.

(2.) They shall have the Messiah among them shortly - him that should come. To him bore all the prophets witness and this prophet particularly here, Hag 2:6, Hag 2:7. Here is an intimation of the time of his coming, that it should not be long ere he came: " Yet once, it is a little while, and he shall come. The Old Testament church has but one stage more (if we may say so) to travel; five stages were now past, from Adam to Noah, thence to Abraham, thence to Moses, thence to Solomon's temple, thence to the captivity, and now yet one stage more, its sixth day's journey, and then comes the sabbatism of the Messiah's kingdom. Let the Son of man, when he comes, find faith on the earth, and let the children of promise continue still looking for him, for now it is but a little while and he will come; hold out, faith and patience, yet awhile, for he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. "And, as he then said of his first appearance, so now of his second, Surely I come quickly. Now concerning his coming it is here foretold, [1.] That it shall be introduced by a general shaking (Hag 2:6): I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. This is applied to the setting up of Christ's kingdom in the world, to make way for which he will judge among the heathen, Psa 110:6. God will once again do for his church as he did when he brought them out of Egypt; he shook the heavens and earth at Mount Sinai, with thunder, and lightnings, and earthquakes; he shook the sea and the dry land when lanes were made through the sea and streams fetched out of the rock. This shall be done again, when, at the sufferings of Christ, the sun shall be darkened, the earth shake, the rocks rend - when, at the birth of Christ, Herod and all Jerusalem are troubled (Mat 2:3), and he is set for the fall and rising again of many. When his kingdom was set up it was with a shock to the nations; the oracles were silenced, idols were destroyed, and the powers of the kingdoms were moved and removed, Heb 12:27. It denotes the removing of the things that are shaken. Note, The shaking of the nations is often in order to the settling of the church and the establishing of the things that cannot be shaken. [2.] That it shall issue in a general satisfaction. He shall come as the desire of all nations - desirable to all nations, for in him shall all the families of the earth be blessed with the best of blessings - long expected and desired by the good people in all nations, that had any intelligence from the Old Testament predictions concerning him. Balaam in the land of Moab had spoken of a star that should arise out of Jacob, and Job in the land of Uz of his living Redeemer; the concourse of devout men from all parts at Jerusalem (Act 2:5) was in expectation of the setting up of the Messiah's kingdom about that time. All the nations that are brought in to Christ, and discipled in his name, have called him, and will call him, all their salvation and all their desire. This glorious title of Christ seems to refer to Jacob's prophecy (Gen 49:10), that to him shall the gathering of the people be.

(3.) The house they are now building shall be filled with glory to such a degree that its glory shall exceed that of Solomon's temple. The enemies of the Jews followed them with reproach, and cast contempt upon the house they were building; but they might very well endure that when God undertook to fill it with glory. It is God's prerogative to fill with glory; the glory that comes from him is satisfying, and not vain glory. Moses's tabernacle and Solomon's temple were filled with glory when God in a cloud took possession of them; but this house shall be filled with glory of another nature. [1.] Let them not be concerned because this house will not have so much silver and gold about it as Solomon's temple had, Hag 2:8. God needs not the silver and gold to adorn his temple, for (says he), The silver is mine, and the gold is mine. All the silver and gold in the world are his; all that is hid in the bowels of the earth (for the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof ), all that is laid up in the exchequers, banks, and treasuries of the children of men, and all that circulates for the maintaining of trade and commerce; it is all the Lord's. Every penny bears his image as well as Caesar's; and therefore when gold and silver are dedicated to his honour, and employed in his service, no addition is made to him, for it was his before. When David and his princes offered vast sums for the service of the house of God, they acknowledged, It is all thy own, and of thy own, Lord, have we given thee, 1Ch 29:14, 1Ch 29:16. Therefore God needs not sacrifice, for every beast of the forest is his, Psa 50:10. Note, If we have silver and gold, we must serve and honour God with them, for they are all his own, we have but the use of them, the property remains in him; but, if we have not silver and gold to honour him with, we must honour him with such as we have, and he will accept us, for he needs them not; all the silver and gold in the world are his already. The earth is full of his riches, so is the great and wide sea also. [2.] Let them be comforted with this, that, though this temple have less gold in it, it shall have more glory than Solomon's (Hag 2:9): The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. This was never true in respect of outward glory. This latter house was indeed in its latter times very much beautified and enriched by Herod, and we find the disciples admiring the stones and buildings of the temple, how fine they were (Mar 13:1); but it was nothing in comparison with Solomon's temple; and, besides, the Jews own that several of the divine glories of the first temple were wanting in this - the ark, the urim and thummim, the fire from heaven, and the Schechinah ; so that we cannot conceive how the glory of this latter house should in any thing exceed that of the former, but in that which would indeed excel all the glories of the first house - the presence of the Messiah in it, the Son of God, his being presented there the glory of his people Israel, his attending there at twelve years old, and afterwards his preaching and working miracles there, and his driving the buyers and sellers out of it. It was necessary, then, that the Messiah should come while the second temple stood; but, that being long since destroyed, we must conclude that our Lord Jesus is the Christ, is he that should come, and we are to look for no other. It was also the glory of this latter house, First, That, before the coming of Christ, it was always kept free from idols and idolatries, and was never polluted with those abominable things, as the first temple often was (2Ki 23:11, 2Ki 23:12), and in this its glory excelled all the glory of that. Note, The purity of the church, and the strict adherence to divine institutions, are much more its glory than external pomp and splendour. Secondly, That, after Christ, the gospel was preached in it by the apostles, even all the words of this life, Act 5:20. In the temple Jesus Christ was daily preached, Act 5:42. Now the ministration of righteousness and life by the gospel was unspeakably more glorious than the law, which was a ministration of death and condemnation, 2Co 3:9, 2Co 3:10. Note, That is the most valuable glory which arises from our relation to Christ and our interest in him. As, where Christ is, behold a greater than Solomon is there, so the heart in which he dwells, and makes a living temple, behold it is more glorious than Solomon's temple, and will be so to eternity.

(4.) They should see a comfortable end of their present troubles, and enjoy the pleasure of a happy settlement: In this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Note, God's presence with his people in his ordinances secures to them all good. If God be with us, peace is with us. But the Jews under the latter temple had so much trouble that we must conclude this promise to have its accomplishment in that spiritual peace which Jesus Christ has by his blood purchased for, and by his last will and testament bequeathed to, all believers (Joh 14:27), that peace which Christ himself preached as the prophet of peace, and gives as the prince of peace. God will give peace in this place; he will give his Son to be the peace, Eph 2:14.

Keil-Delitzsch: Hag 2:1-2

Glory of the New Temple- Hag 2:1 and Hag 2:2. " In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came through Haggai," viz., to Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the remnant of the nation, that is to say, to the whole of the congregation that had returned from exile; whereas the first appeal was only addressed to Zerubbabel and Joshua (see the introduction to Hag 1:1), although it also applied to the whole nation. Just as in the second year of the return from Babylon, when the foundation for the temple, which was about to be rebuilt, was laid in the reign of Cyrus, many old men, who had seen the temple of Solomon, burst out into loud weeping when they saw the new foundation (Ezr 3:10.); a similar feeling of mourning and despair appears to have taken possession of the people and their rulers immediately after the work had been resumed under Darius, and doubts arose whether the new building was really well-pleasing to the Lord, and ought to be carried on. The occasion for this despondency is not to be sought, as Hitzig supposes, in the fact that objections were made to the continuance of the building (Ezr 5:3), and that the opinion prevailed in consequence that the works ought to be stopped till the arrival of the king's authority. For this view not only has no support whatever in our prophecy, but is also at variance with the account in the book of Ezra, according to which the governor and his companions, who had made inquiries concerning the command to build, did not stop the building while they sent word of the affair to the king (Ezr 5:5). Moreover, the conjecture that the people had been seized with a feeling of sadness, when the work had so far advanced that they were able to institute a comparison between the new temple and the earlier one (Hengstenberg), does not suffice to explain the rapid alteration which took place in the feelings of the people. The building could not have been so far advance din three weeks and a half as that the contrast between the new temple and the former one could be clearly seen, if it had not been noticed from the very first; a fact, however, to which Ezr 3:12 distinctly refers. But although it had been seen from the very beginning that the new building would not come up to the glory of the former temple, the people could not from the very outset give up the hope of erecting a building which, if not quite equal to the former one in glory, would at all events come somewhat near to it. Under these circumstances, their confidence in the work might begin to vanish as soon as the first enthusiasm flagged, and a time arrived which was more favourable for the quiet contemplation of the general condition of affairs. This explanation is suggested by the time at which the second word of God was delivered to the congregation through the prophet. The twenty-first day of the seventh month was the seventh day of the feast of tabernacles (cf. Lev 23:34.), the great festival of rejoicing, on which Israel was to give practical expression to its gratitude for the gracious guidance which it had received through the wilderness, as well as for the blessing of the ingathering of all the fruits of the ground, which ended with the gathering of the orchard-fruits and with the vintage, by the presentation of numerous burnt-offerings and other sacrifices (see my biblische Archäologie , i. p. 415ff.). The return of this festal celebration, especially after a harvest which had turned out very miserably, and showed no signs of the blessing of God, could not fail to call up vividly before the mind the difference between the former times, when Israel was able to assemble in the courts of the Lord's house, and so to rejoice in the blessings of His grace in the midst of abundant sacrificial meals, and the present time, when the altar of burnt-sacrifice might indeed be restored again, and the building of the temple be resumed, but in which there was no prospect of erecting a building that would in any degree answer to the glory of the former temple; and when the prophecies of an Isaiah or an Ezekiel were remembered, according to which the new temple was to surpass the former one in glory, it would be almost sure to produce gloomy thoughts, and supply food for doubt whether the time had really come for rebuilding the temple, when after all it would be only a miserable hut. In this gloomy state of mind consolation was very necessary, if the hardly awakened zeal for the building of the house of God was not to cool down and vanish entirely away. To bring this consolation to those who were in despair was the object of the second word of God, which Haggai was to publish to the congregation. It runs as follows:

Keil-Delitzsch: Hag 2:3-5

"Who is left among you, that saw this house in its former glory? and how do ye see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Hag 2:4. And now be comforted, Zerubbabel, is the saying of Jehovah; and be comforted, Joshua son of Jozadak, thou high priest; and be comforted all the people of the land, is the saying of Jehovah, and work: for I am with you, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts. Hag 2:5. The word that I concluded with you at your coming out of Egypt, and my Spirit, stand in the midst of you; fear ye not." The prophet, admitting the poverty of the new building in comparison with the former one, exhorts them to continue the work in comfort, and promises them that the Lord will be with them, and fulfil His covenant promises. The question in Hag 2:3 is addressed to the old men, who had seen Solomon's temple in all its glory. There might be many such men still living, as it was only sixty-seven or sixty-eight years since the destruction of the first temple. הנּשׁאר is the predicate to the subject מי , and has the article because it is defined by the reflex action of the relative clause which follows (compare Ewald, §277, a ). The second question, וּמה אתּם וגו , et qualem videtis , In what condition do ye see it now? is appended to the last clause of the first question: the house which ye saw in its former glory. There then follows with הלוא , in the form of a lively assurance, the statement of the difference between the two buildings. כּמהוּ כּאין , which has been interpreted in very different ways, may be explained from the double use of the כ in comparisons, which is common in Hebrew, and which answers to our as - so : here, however, it is used in the same way as in Gen 18:25 and Gen 44:18; that is to say, the object to be compared is mentioned first, and the object with which the comparison is instituted is mentioned afterwards, in this sense, "so is it, as having no existence,"in which case we should either leave out the first particle of comparison, or if it were expressed, should have to reverse the order of the words: "as not existing (nothing), so is it in your eyes."Koehler gives this correct explanation; whereas if כּמהוּ be explained according to Joe 2:2, its equal, or such an one, we get the unsuitable thought, that it is not the temple itself, but something like the temple, that is compared to nothing. Even in Gen 44:18, to which Ewald very properly refers as containing a perfectly equivalent phrase, it is not a man equal to Joseph, but Joseph himself, who is compared to Pharaoh, and described as being equal to him. Nevertheless they are not to let their courage fail, but to be comforted and to work. Châzaq , to be inwardly strong, i.e., to be comforted, 'Asâh, to work or procure, as in Rth 2:19 and Pro 31:13, in actual fact, to continue the work of building bravely, without there being any necessity to supply מלאכה from Hag 1:14. For Jehovah will be with them (cf. Hag 1:13).

In confirmation of this promise the Lord adds, that the word which He concluded with them on their coming out of Egypt, and His Spirit, will continue among them. "The word"( 'eth - haddâbhâr ) cannot be either the accusative of the object to the preceding verb ‛ăsū (Hag 2:4), or to any verb we may choose to supply, or the preposition 'ēth , with, or the accusative of norm or measure (Luther, Calvin, and others). To connect it with ‛ăsū yields no suitable meaning. It is not the word, which they vowed to the Lord, at the conclusion of the covenant, that they are to do now, but the work which they had begun, viz., the building of the temple, they are now to continue. It is perfectly arbitrary to supply the verb zikhrū , remember (Ewald and Hengstenberg), and to understand the prophet as reminding them of the word "fear not"(Exo 20:17-20). That word, "fear not,"with which Moses, not God, infused courage into the people, who were alarmed at the terrible phenomenon with which Jehovah came down upon Sinai, has no such central significance as that Haggai could point to it without further introduction, and say that Jehovah had concluded it with them on their coming out of Egypt. The word which the Lord concluded with Israel when He led it out of Egypt, can only be the promise which established the covenant, to the fulfilment of which God bound Himself in relation to the people, when He led them out of Egypt, namely, the word that He would make Israel into His own property out of all nations (Exo 19:5-6; Deu 7:6; cf. Jer 7:22-23, and Jer 11:4). It would quite agree with this to take 'ēth as the accusative of the norm, and also to connect it as a preposition, if this could only be shown to be in accordance with the rules of the language. But although the accusative in Hebrew is often used, in the relation of free subordination, "to express more precisely the relation of measure and size, space and time, mode and kind"(cf. Ewald, §204-206), it is impossible to find any example of such an accusative of norm as is here assumed, especially with 'ēth preceding it. But if 'ēth were a preposition instead of אתּכם , we should have עמּכם , inasmuch as the use of את־הדּבר , as a parallel to אתּכם , makes the words clumsy and awkward. The thought which Haggai evidently wishes to express requires that haddâbhâr should stand upon the same line with rūchı̄ , so that 'eth - haddâbhâr is actually the subject to ‛ōmedeth , and 'ēth is simply used to connect the new declaration with the preceding one, and to place it in subjection to the one which follows, in the sense of "as regards," quoad (Ewald, §277, d , pp. 683-4), in which case the choice of the accusative in the present instance may either be explained from a kind of attraction (as in the Latin, urbem quam statuo vestra est ), as Hitzig supposes, or from the blending together of two constructions, as Koehler maintains; that is to say, Haggai intended to write את־הדּבר ורוּחי העמדתּי , but was induced to alter the proposed construction by the relative clause אשׁר כּרתּי וגו attaching itself to הדּבר . Consequently ‛ōmedeth , as predicate, not only belongs to rūchı̄ , but also to haddâbhâr , in the sense of to have continuance and validity; and according to a later usage of the language, עמד is used for קוּם , to stand fast (compare Isa 40:8 with Dan 11:14). The word, that Israel is the property of Jehovah, and Jehovah the God of Israel, still stands in undiminished force; and not only so, but His Spirit also still works in the midst of Israel. Rūăch , in parallelism with the word containing the foundation of the covenant, is neither the spirit of prophecy (Chald., J. D. Mich.), nor the spirit which once filled Bezaleel and his companions (Exo 31:1., Exo 36:1.), enabling them to erect the tabernacle in a proper manner, and one well-pleasing to God (Luc., Osiander, and Koehler). Both views are too narrow; rūăch is the divine power which accompanies the word of promise and realizes it in a creative manner, i.e., not merely "the virtue with which God will establish their souls, that they may not be overcome by temptations"(Calvin), but also the power of the Spirit working in the world, which is able to remove all the external obstacles that present themselves to the realization of the divine plan of salvation. This Spirit is still working in Israel ("in the midst of you"); therefore they are not to fear, even if the existing state of things does not correspond to human expectations. The omnipotence of God can and will carry out His word, and glorify His temple. This leads to the further promise in Hag 2:6-9, which gives the reason for the exhortation, "Fear ye not."

Keil-Delitzsch: Hag 2:6-7

"For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Once more, in a short time it comes to pass, I shake heaven and earth, and the sea, and the dry. Hag 2:7. And I shake all nations, and the costly of all nations will come, and I shall fill this house with glory, saith Jehovah of hosts. Hag 2:8. Mine is the silver, and mine the gold, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts. Hag 2:9. The last glory of this house will be greater than the first, saith Jehovah of hosts; and in this place shall I give peace, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts." Different explanations have been given of the definition of the time עוד אחת מעט היא . Luther, Calvin, and others, down to Ewald and Hengstenberg, follow the Chaldee and Vulgate, and either take achath in the sense of the indefinite article or as a numeral, "adhuc unum modicum est," or "it is yet a little thither."But if achath belonged to מעט as a numeral adjective, either in the one sense or the other, according to the arrangement adopted without exception in Hebrew (for 'echâd is not an adjective in Dan 8:13), it could not stand before מעט , but must be placed after it. The difference of gender also precludes this combination, inasmuch as מעט is not construed as a feminine in a single passage. We must therefore take מעט היא as forming an independent clause of itself, i.e., as a more precise definition of עוד אחת . But 'achath does not mean one = one time, or a short space of time (Burk, Hitzig, Hofmann); nor does it acquire this meaning from the clause מעט היא ; nor can it be sustained by arbitrarily supplying עת . 'Achath is used as a neuter in the sense of "once,"as in Exo 30:10; 2Ki 6:10; Job 40:5 (cf. Ewald, §269, b ). מעט היא , a little, i.e., a short time is it, equivalent to "soon,"in a short time will it occur (cf. Hos 8:10; Psa 37:10). The lxx have rendered it correctly ἔτι ἅπαξ , only they have left out מעט היא . The words, "once more and indeed in a short time I shake,"etc., have not the meaning which Koehl. attaches to the correct rendering, viz., "Once, and only once, will Jehovah henceforth shake heaven and earth,"in which the עוד standing at the head is both moved from its place, and taken, not in the sense of repetition or of continuance from the present to the future, but simply in the sense of an allusion to the future; in other words, it is completely deprived of its true meaning. For עוד never loses its primary sense of repetition or return any more than the German noch (still or yet), so as to denote an occurrence in the future without any allusion whatever to an event that has already happened or is in existence still, not even in 2Sa 19:36 and 2Ch 17:6, with which Koehler endeavours to support his views, without observing that in these passages עוד is used in a very different sense, signifying in 2 Sam. praeterea , and in 2 Chronicles "moreover."In the verse before us it is used with reference to the previous shaking of the world at the descent of Jehovah upon Sinai to establish the covenant with Israel, to which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has quite correctly taken it as referring (Heb 12:26).

On the other hand, the objection offered by Koehler, that that shaking did not extend beyond Sinai and the Sinaitic region, either according to the historical account in Exo 19:16-18, or the poetical descriptions in Jdg 5:4-5, and Psa 68:8-9, is incorrect. For not only in the two poetical descriptions referred to, but also in Hab 3:6, the manifestation of God upon Sinai is represented as a trembling or shaking of the earth, whereby the powers of the heaven were set in motion, and the heavens dropped down water. The approaching shaking of the world will be much more violent; it will affect the heaven and the earth in all their parts, the sea and the solid ground, and also the nations. Then will the condition of the whole of the visible creation and of the whole of the world of nations be altered. The shaking of the heaven and the earth, i.e., of the universe, is closely connected with the shaking of all nations. It is not merely a figurative representation of symbol, however, of great political agitations, but is quite as real as the shaking of the nations, and not merely follows this and is caused by it, but also precedes it and goes side by side with it, and only in its completion does it form the conclusion to the whole of the shaking of the world. For earthquakes and movements of the powers of heaven are heralds and attendants of the coming of the Lord to judgment upon the whole earth, through which not only the outward form of the existing world is altered, but the present world itself will finally be reduced to ruins (Isa 24:18-20), and out of the world thus perishing there are to be created a new heaven and a new earth (Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22; 2Pe 3:10-13). But if the shaking of heaven and earth effects a violent breaking up of the existing condition of the universe, the shaking of all nations can only be one by which an end is put to the existing condition of the world of nations, by means of great political convulsions, and indeed, according to the explanation given in Hag 2:22, by the Lord's overthrowing the throne of the kingdoms, annihilating their power, and destroying their materials of war, so that one falls by the sword of the other, that is to say, by wars and revolutions, by which the might of the heathen world is broken and annihilated. It follows from this, that the shaking of the heathen is not to be interpreted spiritually, either as denoting "the marvellous, supernatural, and violent impulse by which God impels His elect to betake themselves to the fold of Christ"(Calvin), or "the movement to be produced among the nations through the preaching of the gospel, with the co-operation of the Holy Spirit."The impulse given by the preaching of the gospel and the operation of the Holy Spirit to such souls among the nations as desire salvation, to seek salvation from the living God, is only the fruit of the shaking of the heathen world, and is not to be identified with it; for the coming of the chemdth kol - haggōyı̄m is defined by וּבאוּ with the Vav consec. as a consequence of the shaking of the nations.

By chemdath kol - haggōyı̄m most of the earlier orthodox commentators understood the Messiah, after the example of the Vulgate, et veniet desideratus gentibus , and Luther's "consolation of the Gentiles."But the plural בּאוּ is hardly reconcilable with this. If, for example, chemdath were the subject of the clause, as most of the commentators assume, we should have the singular וּבא . For the rule, that in the case of two nouns connected together in the construct state, the verb may take the number of the governed noun, applies only to cases in which the governed noun contains the principal idea, so that there is a constructio ad sensum ; whereas in the case before us the leading idea would be formed, not by kol - haggōyı̄m , but by chemdath , desideratus , or consolation, as a designation of the Messiah. Hence Cocc., Mark, and others, have taken chemdath as the accusative of direction: "that they (sc., the nations) may come to the desire of all nations - namely, to Christ."It cannot be objected to this, as Koehler supposes, that to designate Christ as the desire of all nations would be either erroneous, inasmuch as in the time of Haggai only a very few heathen knew anything about Israel's hope of a Messiah, or perfectly unintelligible to his contemporaries, especially if the meaning of the epithet were that the heathen would love Him at some future time. For the latter remark is at once proved to be untenable by the prophecy of Isaiah and Micah, to the effect that all nations will flow to the mountain of God's house. After such prophecies, the thought that the heathen would one day love the Messiah could not be unintelligible to the contemporaries of our prophet; and there is not the smallest proof of the first assertion. In the year 520 b.c., when the ten tribes had already been scattered among the heathen for 200 years, and the Judaeans for more than seventy years, the Messianic hope of Israel could not be any longer altogether unknown to the nations. It may with much better reason be objected to the former view, that if chemdâh were the accusative of direction, we should expect the preposition 'el in order to avoid ambiguity. But what is decisive against it is the fact, that the coming of the nations to the Messiah would be a thought completely foreign to the context, since the Messiah cannot without further explanation be identified with the temple. Chemdâh signifies desire (2Ch 21:20), then the object of desire, that in which a man finds pleasure and joy, valuables. Chemdath haggōyı̄m is therefore the valuable possessions of the heathen, or according to Hag 2:8 their gold and silver, or their treasures and riches; not the best among the heathen (Theod. Mops., Capp., Hitzig). Hence chemdath cannot be the accusative of direction, since the thought that the heathen come to the treasures of all the heathen furnishes no suitable meaning; but it is the nominative or subject, and is construed as a collective word with the verb in the plural. The thought is the following: That shaking will be followed by this result, or produce this effect, that all the valuable possessions of the heathen will come to fill the temple with glory. Compare Isa 60:5, where the words, "the possessions (riches) of the heathen ( chēl gōyı̄m ) will come to thee,"i.e., be brought to Jerusalem, express the same thought; also Isa 60:11. With the valuable possessions of the heathen the Lord will glorify His temple, or fill it with kâbhōd . Kâbhōd without the article denotes the glory which the temple will receive through the possessions of the heathen presented there. The majority of the commentators have referred these words to the glorification of the temple through the appearance of Jesus in it, and appeal to Exo 40:34-35; 1Ki 8:10-11; 2Ch 5:13-14, according to which passages the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle and Solomon's temple at their dedication, so that they identify kâbhōd (glory) with k^e bhōd Y^e hōvâh (glory of Jehovah) without reserve. But this is impracticable, although the expression kâbhōd is chosen by the prophet with a reference to those events, and the fulfilment of our prophecy did commence with the fact that Jehovah came to His temple in the person of Jesus Christ (Mal 3:1).

Keil-Delitzsch: Hag 2:8-9

Jehovah can fill this house with glory, because the silver and gold which the heathen nations possess belong to Him. By shaking all kingdoms He can induce the nations to present their treasures to Him as gifts for the glorification of His house. Thus (the promise closes with this in Hag 2:9), the later glory of this house will be greater than the former was. Hâachărōn might be regarded as belonging to habbayith hazzeh , in the sense of "the glory of this latter house;"and the majority of the commentators have taken it so, after the Itala, Vulgate, and Peschito. But it is quite as admissible to connect it with kâbhōd , in the sense of "the later glory of this house,"inasmuch as when one substantive is determined by another which is connected with it in the construct state, the adjective belonging to the nomen regens follows with the article (cf. 2Sa 23:1; 1Ch 23:27; and Ewald, §289, a ). This is the rendering adopted by Michaelis, Maurer, Hitzig, and others, after the lxx. According to the first construction, the distinction would be drawn between a former and a later house; according to the second, simply between the earlier and later glory of the same house; and the passage would be based upon the idea, that through all ages there was only one house of Jehovah in Jerusalem existing under different forms. Hag 2:3 is decisive in favour of the second view, for there an earlier glory is attributed to this house, and contrasted with its present miserable condition. The first or former glory is that of Solomon's temple, the later or last that of Zerubbabel's. The difference of opinion as to the true rendering of the words has no material influence upon the matter itself; except that, if the latter view be adopted, the question so often discussed by earlier writers - namely, whether by the second temple we are to understand the temple of Zerubbabel or the temple as altered by Herod, which many have erroneously taken to be the third - falls to the ground as perfectly unmeaning. The final glory of the temple will also be a lasting one. This is implied in the closing words of the promise: "And in this place will I give peace.""This place"is not the temple, but Jerusalem, as the place where the temple is built; and the "peace"is not spiritual peace, but external peace, which does indeed in its perfect form include spiritual peace as well. This is perfectly evident from the parallel passages, Mic 5:4, Joe 3:17, and Isa 60:18.

If we also take up the question as to the fulfilment of this prophecy, we must keep the two features quite distinct - ( a ) the shaking of heaven and earth and all nations; ( b ) the consequence of this shaking, the coming of the heathen with their possessions to the glorification of the temple - although they both stand in close connection. The earlier commentators were no doubt generally right, when they sought for the fulfilment in the establishment of the new covenant through Christ; they simply erred in referring the predicted shaking of the nations and the promised glorification of the temple in too one-sided and exclusive a manner to the coming of Christ in the flesh, to His teaching in the temple, and to the establishment of the kingdom of heaven through the preaching of the gospel. They were thereby compelled, on the one hand, to force upon the prophecy a meaning irreconcilable with the words themselves, and, on the other hand, to seek for its fulfilment in historical particulars to some extent of very subordinate importance. Even the predicted nearness of the time ("it is a little while") does not suit the exclusive reference to the establishment of the new covenant, or the founding of the Christian church. The period of 520 years, which elapsed before the birth of Christ, cannot be called a little or short time, as Calovius supposes, "in comparison with the time that had passed since either the promulgation of the law or the promulgation of the protevangelium,"inasmuch as five hundred are not מעט in relation to fifteen hundred, and the proposal to go back to the protevangelium is evidently merely a loophole of perplexity. Nor can מעט היא be explained on the hypothesis that the measure of time here is not a human one, but the divine measure, according to which a thousand years are equal to one day. "For whoever speaks to men, must speak of things according to a human method of thinking; or if he do not, he must make it clear that this is the case. The prophet lays stress upon the brevity of the time, for the purpose of comforting. And only what is short in the eyes of men is fitted for this"(Hengstenberg). The shaking of the heathen world did not first begin with the birth of Christ, but commenced shortly after the time of Haggai. It is true that under Darius Hystaspes the Persian empire was still standing at the summit of its power; but its shaking began under his successor Xerxes, and came very plainly to light in his war against Greece. "Even then there were forebodings that the time of this empire would soon be accomplished, and the rapid conquests of Alexander gave fulfilment to this foreboding. And even his power, which seemed destined to last for ever, very speedily succumbed to the lot of all temporal things. Inde (says Livy) morte Alexandri distractum in multa regna, dum ad se quisque opes rapiunt lacerantes viribus, a summo culmine fortunae ad ultimum finem centum quinquaginta annos stetit. The two most powerful kingdoms that grew out of the monarchy of Alexander, viz., the Syrian and Egyptian, destroyed one another. The Romans now attained to the government of the world; but at the very time when they appeared to be at the summit of their greatness, their shaking had very considerably advanced"(Hengstenberg). The circumstance that the prophet mentions the shaking of heaven and earth before the shaking of all the heathen, cannot furnish any valid ground for objecting to these allusions; nor can it force us to the conclusion that the words are only to be understood as denoting "great political shakings, whereby the power of the heathen would be broken, their pride humbled, and so the susceptibility for salvation be evoked among them."For even if such events do shake the world, and are poetically represented as earthquakes, even if they were regarded by the nations as heralds of the approaching destruction of the world, because the impression they produced upon the mind was as if heaven and earth were falling to pieces; all this does not satisfy the words, which do not express the subjective emotion, but announce real facts. The shaking of heaven and earth, of the sea and of the dry land, is indeed partially effected by violent earthquakes and wonderful signs in the sky, and was typified by such judgments as the flood; but it is only fully accomplished at the breaking up of the present condition of the world in the destruction of this heaven and this earth.

The prophet mentions at the very outset the utmost and the last that God will do, to clear away all existing hindrances to the completion of His kingdom in glory, and then passes on to the shakings of the world of nations which prepare the way for and lead on to this result, just as Micah in Mic 4:1-13 comes back from the most remote future to the less remote, and then to the immediate future. For the shakings of the heathen, by which their power will be broken and the dissolution of heathenism and of the ungodly power of the world will be effected, do not reach their end with the coming of Christ and the establishment of the Christian church: but just as the kingdom of the world maintains its standing by the side of the kingdom of heaven established by Christ upon the earth, until the return of our Lord to judgment; so does the shaking of the heathen and of the kingdoms of the nations continue till every power which rises against the Almighty God and His Christ is broken, and the world which has been thrown into confusion by the sin of men, and is made subject to corruptibility on their account, shall perish, and the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, for which we are looking, shall be established (2Pe 3:12-13).

(Note: Aug. Koehler also assumes that the ultimate fulfilment of our prophecy will not take place till the second coming of Christ, although he is of opinion that, generally speaking, it has not been fulfilled in the manner originally intended. Starting, for example, with the fact that the fulfilment of the events predicted by Haggai and the coming of the day of Jehovah are one and the same, and that according to Mal 3:1; Mal 4:5 the day of Jehovah was to be preceded by the coming of a messenger, to prepare the way for Jehovah to come to His temple, Koehler assumes that the fulfilment of these events ought to have taken place with the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, to establish the new covenant as the Messiah. But, inasmuch as Israel was still without such moral preparation as would allow of the coming of Jehovah being a blessing to it, and rejected its Messiah, there occurred an event in connection with this rejection of Jesus on the part of Israel, which not only put a stop to the fulfilment of the prophecies, the realization of which had commenced with the coming of Jesus, but introduced a partial modification. "The new covenant,"he says, "which was established by the Lord in His incarnation, was not at first a blessing to Israel, but to the heathen world. Instead of setting up His kingdom over the earth, with Zion as the centre, the Lord returned to heaven, and there took possession of the throne above all thrones. But Israel was smitten with the ban, and scattered among the heathen nations. The sacred places which were to be glorified by the valuables of all the heathen, had become unclean through Israel's sin, and were given up to destruction in consequence."In his opinion there is a coming of Jehovah still in the future. Jesus will return from heaven again, but not till Israel shall have been converted to the Messiah it rejected. Then will the prophecies of Haggai that remained unfulfilled at the first coming of Jesus be accomplished, but in the only way that is still possible, since the former holy places of Israel have been destroyed, and the heathen world has already participated in the new covenant, and has at any rate in part already become the people of God. Consequently the events predicted by Haggai (Hag 2:6-9) have not been fulfilled; for the valuable possessions of all the heathen have not been applied to the glorification of the sanctuary of Jehovah built by Zerubbabel, and there has not been a place of peace created there in the midst of the judgments that were to fall upon the heathen world. But the fault of this rests purely upon Israel. And so also it is in the impenitence of Israel that we have to look for the reason why the shaking of the heaven and the earth, and all the heathen, which Haggai announced as מעט היא , has been postponed for more than 500 years. This is Koehler's view. But if there had really been any foundation in the Scriptures for this view, and the predictions of our prophet had not been fulfilled in the manner intended, the fault would not rest entirely in the impenitence of Israel, but would fall in part upon God Himself, for having sent His Son, not at the proper time, or when the time was accomplished, but too early, namely, before Israel was in that moral condition which would allow of the coming of the Messiah to become a blessing to it, whether God was mistaken as to the proper time for sending His Son, or in His judgment as to the moral condition of Israel. If Koehler had put this clearly to his own mind, he would certainly have hesitated before he built up a view on the basis of an erroneous idea of the day of the Lord which necessarily leads to the denial not only of the divine prescience or the πρόγνωσιη τοῦ Θεοῦ , but also of the supernatural character of the old Testament prophecy.)

But if the shaking of the heathen commenced before the coming of Christ in the flesh, and will continue till His second coming in glory, we must not restrict the fulfilment of the predicted moral consequences of this shaking - namely, that the heathen come and consecrate their possessions to the Lord for the glorification of His house, to the conversion of the heathen to Christ, and their entrance into the Christian church - but must also regard the desire for the living God, awakened by the decay of heathendom and its religions, which was manifested in the adoption of Judaism by the more pious heathen, as a prelude to the fulfilment which commenced with the spread of the gospel among the Gentiles, and must include not only the presentation of dedicatory offerings τῶν ἀλλυφύλων and of gifts ἔξωθεν ἐθνῶν , with which the temple was adorned according to Josephus, de Bell. Jud. ii. 17, 3, but also the presents of king Artaxerxes and his counsellors, which Ezra received on his return to Jerusalem to carry with him for the temple (Ezr 7:15.).

(Note: We must not, however, include the additions to Zerubbabel's temple undertaken by Herod the Great for the sake of beautifying it, because, although Herod was a Gentile by descent, the work was not undertaken from any love to the Lord, but (as Calvin; and Hengstenberg, Christol . iii. pp. 289-90, have already observed) with the intention of securing the fulfilment of Haggai's prophecy, in order to prevent the coming of the kingdom of God, his fear of which was that it would put an end to his earthly sway. His intention is obvious enough from the address communicated by Josephus ( Ant. xv. 11, 1), through which Herod endeavoured to win over the people to his plan. After telling them that the temple built after the return of the fathers from exile was still sixty cubits lower than that of Solomon, which he proposed to add, he proceeded thus: "But since I am now by God's will your governor, and I have had peace a long time, and have gained great riches and large revenues, and, what is the principal thing of all, I am at amity with and well regarded by the Romans, who, if I may so say, are the rulers of the whole world,"etc. The allusion to our prophecy, as Hengstenberg says, is unmistakeable here. He tries to prove that all the conditions which it lays down for the glorifying of the temple have now been realized. "All nations,"by whom the building of the temple is to be promoted, are equivalent in his esteem to "the Romans, who are the rulers of the whole world."He whom God has called to the government has gold and silver enough. And the words "in this place will I give peace"are now fulfilled. The manner in which he strained every nerve to fulfil the words "the glory will be greater,"is evident from §3, where it is stated that "he laid out larger sums of money upon them than had been done before him, till it seemed that no one else had so greatly adorned the temple as he had done.")

Yea, even the command of king Darius Hystaspes to his vicegerent, which no doubt reached Jerusalem after our prophecy had been uttered, not only to allow the work at this house of God to continue, but also to deliver to the elders of Judah what was required for the building as well as for the requirements of the daily sacrificial worship out of the moneys raised by taxation on this side the river (Ezr 6:6-10), may at any rate be regarded as a pledge of the certain fulfilment of the divine promise uttered by Haggai.

But whilst the honour paid to the temple of Zerubbabel on the part of the heathen and heathen princes by the presentation of sacrifices and dedicatory offerings must not be overlooked, as preludes to the promised filling of this house with the riches of the Gentiles, we must not look to this outward glorification of the temple at Jerusalem for the true fulfilment of our prophecy, even if it had exceeded Solomon's temple in glory. This first took place with the coming of Christ, and that not in the fact that Jesus visited the temple and taught in it, and as the incarnate Logos , in whom the "glory of Jehovah"that filled the temple of Solomon dwelt in its truest essence as δόξα ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός , glorified the temple of stone with His presence, but by the fact that Christ raised up the true temple of God not built with human hand (Joh 2:19), i.e., that He exalted the kingdom of God shadowed forth in the temple at Jerusalem to its true essence. We must draw a distinction between the substance and form, the kernel and the shell, of the prophecy. The temple, as the place where the Lord dwelt in the midst of Israel in a visible symbol of His gracious presence, was the seat and concentration of the kingdom of God, which had its visible embodiment in the temple so long as the old covenant lasted. In this respect the rebuilding of the temple that had been destroyed was a sign and pledge of the restoration of the kingdom of God, which had been broken up through the banishment of Israel among the heathen, and the attitude of those who returned from exile towards the building of the temple was a sign of their internal attitude towards the Lord and His kingdom. If, then, the old men who had seen the temple in its former glory wept aloud at the laying of the foundation of the new building, because in comparison with the former it was as nothing in their eyes, this mourning was occasioned not so much by the fact that the new temple would not be so beautiful and majestic a building as that of Solomon had been, as by the fact that the poverty of the new building set before their eyes the wretched condition of the kingdom of God. This true or deeper ground for their mourning, which might very well give rise to the question whether the Lord would restore His former gracious relation to Israel, or at any rate would restore it now, is met by the divine promise published by Haggai to the people, which attaches itself in form to the existing circumstances, and accordingly promises for the future a glorification of the temple which will outshine the glory of the former one. If we look at the thought itself which is expressed in this form, it is the following: The Lord will one day exalt His kingdom, which is so deeply degraded and despised, to a glory which will far surpass the glory of the kingdom of God at the time of Solomon, and that by the fact that all the heathen nations will dedicate their possessions to it. This glorification of the house of God commenced with the introduction of the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus Christ preached, and of which He laid the foundation in His church. And whilst the stone-temple at Jerusalem built by Zerubbabel and splendidly finished by Herod fell into ruins, because the Jews had rejected their Saviour, and crucified Him, this has been carried on through the spread of the kingdom of God among the nations of the earth, and will be completed at the end of the course of this world; not, however, by the erection of a new and much more glorious temple in Jerusalem, but in the founding of the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God upon the new earth, after the overthrow of all the powers of the world that are hostile to God. This holy city will have the glory of God ( ἡ δόξα τοῦ Θεοῦ = כּבוד יהוה ), but no temple; because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Into this holy city of God will the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour, and the heathen who are saved will walk therein (Rev 21:10-11, Rev 21:22-24). Thus the promise covers the entire development of the kingdom of God to the end of days.

This was the sense in which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 12:26-27) understood our prophecy. In order, namely, to give emphasis to his admonition, not to expose themselves to still severer punishment than fell upon those who hardened themselves under the Old Testament against the incomplete revelation of God, by rejecting the far more perfect revelation of God in Christ, he quotes our prophecy, and shows from it (Heb 12:26), that at the founding of the old covenant only a comparatively small shaking of the earth took place; whereas for the times of the new covenant there had been predicted a shaking not only of the earth, but also of the heaven, which indicated that what was moveable was to be altered, as made for that purpose, that the immoveable might remain. The author of this epistle consequently brings out the fundamental thought of our prophecy, in which its fulfilment culminates, viz., that everything earthly must be shaken and altered, that the immoveable, i.e., the βασιλεία ἀσάλευτος , may remain, or in other words, that the whole of the earthly creation must perish, in order that the kingdom of God may be shown to be immoveably permanent. He does not, however, thereby represent the predicted shaking of heaven and earth "as still in the future,"as Koehler supposes; but, as his words in Heb 12:28 (cf. Heb 12:22), "Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace,"clearly show, he takes it as having already commenced, and looks upon the whole period, from the coming of Christ in the flesh till His coming again in glory, as one continuum .

Constable: Hag 2:9-18

III. A promise of future blessing for the people 2:10-19

2:10 Another prophecy came from the Lord on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of 520 B.C. (Kislev 24, December 18). During the two months between this prophecy and the former one (vv. 1-9), Zechariah began his ministry in Jerusalem (Zech. 1:1).

2:11 Almighty Yahweh instructed Haggai to request a ruling from the priests. The priests were the official interpreters of the Mosaic Law, and what follows deals with matters of ceremonial defilement.

2:12 The question was, if someone carries consecrated food in his garment and touches other food of any kind with the garment, will that food become holy? Holy meat was meat set apart for a particular sacrificial purpose (cf. Lev. 6:25; Num. 6:20). The answer was, no it would not become holy. The meat carried in the garment would make the garment holy, but the holiness would not be communicated beyond the garment to anything else (cf. Exod. 29:37; Lev. 6:27; Ezek. 44:19; Matt. 23:19). The people were apparently thinking that since they were working on the holy temple all that they contacted and did became holy.²⁶

2:13 A second question was, if someone who has become unclean, for example by touching a corpse, touches food of any kind, will the food become unclean (cf. Lev. 22:4-6; Num. 19:11-16)? The answer was, yes it would become unclean.

2:14 Haggai then made an application of this principle to the people for the Lord. Their sacrifices were unacceptable to God because they were unclean. They should not think that contact with something holy, such as the temple they were working to complete, made them acceptable to God. They had previously been unclean, so their present sacrifices were unacceptable to God.

2:15-16 The people needed to give careful consideration to something again (cf. 1:5, 7). They needed to remember that before they began to obey the Lord by rebuilding the temple (1:12) they had been disobedient to the Mosaic Covenant (cf. 1:5-11). The Lord's punishment for their covenant unfaithfulness had been greatly reduced harvests. Their grains had decreased by 50 percent and their grapes by 60 percent.

2:17 The Lord had used hot winds, mildew, and hail to smite the people and what they had planted, but they still did not repent (cf. Amos 4:9).

2:18-19 The people were to notice something on the day this prophecy reached their ears, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. They were to notice that from the day they started to rebuild the temple, their hardships had continued (cf. 1:14-15). They still suffered shortages of staples such as seed, grapes, and olives, and luxuries such as figs and pomegranates. However, the Lord revealed that He would now bless them, beginning that very day, the twenty-fourth of the ninth month.

This oracle explained why agricultural blessing had not begun immediately after the people resumed reconstruction on the temple. Their present dedication and obedience did not wipe out their previous covenant unfaithfulness and its punishments. That punishment had to run its course, but now, as of the day of this prophecy, God would begin to bless the people with better harvests.

God will bless His people for their obedience, but sometimes He will not erase the punishment that previous sins have made necessary. Sin always brings death (Rom. 6:23). Sometimes that punishment must run its course before blessing can begin.

Guzik: Hag 2:1-23

Haggai 2 - The Glory of the Second Temple

A. The second word from God: the glory of the new temple.

1. (1-3) Is the new temple as nothing compared to Solomon's temple?

In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying: "Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying: 'Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?'"

a. In the seventh month: This message came in October of 520 B.C. It was feast time in Israel, celebrating both the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles.

b. Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? Haggai spoke some 66 years after the temple was destroyed. Certainly there were some old men who had seen Solomon's temple in its splendor.

i. Ezra 3:12-13 describes what those who had seen the first temple felt like 16 years before this prophecy of Haggai, when the work of rebuilding the temple first began:

But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off. (Ezra 3:12-13)

ii. The men in Ezra 3 wept because they saw this temple in its former glory. When Solomon built the first temple, he spared no expense in materials, and hired the best talent he could find to do the work.

c. In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing: These kind of comparisons between "the good old days" and the present day - or between the work of God in various places and times - are rarely beneficial. It didn't do the people of Haggai's day any good to think of how magnificent Solomon's temple was compared to their own rebuilding work.

i. "The smallness of our gifts may be a temptation to us. We are consciously so weak and so insignificant, compared with the great God and his great cause, that we are discouraged, and think it vain to attempt anything . . . the enemy contrasts our work with that of others, and with that of those who have gone before us. We are doing so little as compared with other people, therefore let us give up. We cannot build like Solomon, therefore let us not build at all. Yet, brethren, there is a falsehood in all this, for, in truth, nothing is worthy of God. The great works of others, and even the amazing productions of Solomon, all fell short of his glory." (Spurgeon)

ii. A.W. Tozer suggested this prayer regarding our tendency to compare and compete:

"Dear Lord, I refuse henceforth to compete with any of Thy servants. They have congregations larger than mine. So be it. I rejoice in their success. They have greater gifts. Very well. That is not in their power nor in mine. I am humbly grateful for their greater gifts and my smaller ones. I only pray that I may use to Thy glory such modest gifts as I possess. I will not compare myself with any, nor try to build up my self-esteem by noting where I may excel one or another in Thy holy work. I herewith make a blanket disavowal of all intrinsic worth. I am but an unprofitable servant. I gladly go to the foot of the cross and own myself the least of Thy people. If I err in my self judgment and actually underestimate myself I do not want to know it. I purpose to pray for others and to rejoice in their prosperity as if it were my own. And indeed it is my own if it is Thine own, for what is Thine is mine, and while one plants and another waters it is Thou alone that giveth the increase." (A.W. Tozer, The Price of Neglect)

2. (4-5) Carry on the work in strength and assurance.

"Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel," says the LORD; "and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land," says the LORD, "and work; for I am with you," says the LORD of hosts. "According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!"

a. Be strong . . . and work . . . do not fear: God gives the leaders and people of Israel three clear commands. Each of these three is essential to getting the work of God done. Great things are not accomplished without action.

i. "What was lacking was dissatisfaction with things as they were, and the consequent drive to initiate action. Resignation killed faith." (Baldwin)

b. I am with you . . . according to the word that I covenanted with you when You came out of Egypt: The same God that did great things in the past is among them today, so be encouraged.

i. "Undoubtedly fear gripped many of the returnees - fear that God had written an eternal 'Ichabod' over Jerusalem" (Alden)

c. My Spirit remains among you: Under the Old Covenant the Holy Spirit was among the people. Under the New Covenant He is in God's people.

3. (6-9) Why the rebuilt temple will be more glorious than the temple of Solomon.

For thus says the LORD of hosts: "Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory," says the LORD of hosts. The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine," says the LORD of hosts. The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former," says the LORD of hosts. "And in this place I will give peace," says the LORD of hosts.

a. Once more . . . I will shake heaven and earth: This is the only portion of Haggai quoted in the New Testament (Hebrews 12:26).

b. They shall come to the Desire of All Nations: Through the centuries, most see this as a prophecy of the Messiah coming to this temple rebuilt in the days of Haggai and Ezra. This understanding began with the ancient rabbis and continued among Christians, and fits in well with the promise of filling the temple with glory.

i. Some point out that this word for Desire can also be translated treasures. We know that the Gentiles will bring tribute to the LORD in the Millennium (Isaiah 60:5) - but that won't bring treasure to this temple that was rebuilt in the days of Ezra and Haggai.

ii. The true Desire of All Nations is Jesus, even if the nations themselves do not know it. "He is the one, the true Reformer, the true rectifier of all wrong, and in this respect the desire of all nations. Oh! if the world could gather up all her right desire; if she could condense in one cry all her wild wishes; if all true lovers of mankind could condense their theories and extract the true wine of wisdom from them; it would just come to this, we want an Incarnate God, and you have got the Incarnate God! Oh! Nations, but ye know it not! Ye, in the dark, are groping after him, and know not that he is there." (Spurgeon)

iii. Knowing that Jesus is the Desire of All Nations also encourages our missionary work. "Brethren, I may add, Christ is certainly the desire of all nations in this respect, that we desire him for all nations. Oh! That the world were encompassed in his gospel! Would God the sacred fire would run along the ground, that the little handful of corn on the top of the mountains would soon make its fruit to shake like Lebanon. Oh! When will it come, when will it come that all the nations shall know him? Let us pray for it: let us labor for it." (Spurgeon)

c. "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine," says the LORD of hosts: They didn't need to be discouraged if they didn't have money for the building project. They had to boldly trust the God who owned every resource, and then give generously.

i. When we really trust God, we will give generously. Hudson Taylor, the groundbreaking missionary to the interior regions of China in the second half of the nineteenth century experienced this principle early in his life. As a young man he preached in boarding houses in the poor slums of London. A poor man asked Taylor to come back to his room and pray for his wife who suffered complications from childbirth was near death. The man had no money at all, and couldn't afford to pay a priest to come and perform last rites. Taylor went to the man's room and found the heartbreaking situation - several children, the afflicted mother and a three-day-old baby living in absolute filth and squalor, with absolutely no food or money. Taylor knew he had a $20 coin in his pocket that would meet their needs, but it was all the money he had in the world himself. He began to speak to the family about God when the Lord spoke to his own heart: "You hypocrite! Telling these unconverted people about a kind and loving Father in heaven, and not prepared yourself to trust him without your $20." Taylor wished that he had two $10 pieces, and he would gladly have given them one - but all he had was one $20 coin. He was taken aback, but decided to lead the family in the Lord's Prayer. As soon as he said the words "Our Father," the Lord convicted him of his hypocrisy again. He struggled through the prayer under tremendous conviction and then gave the father the $20 piece. That provision saved the life of the mother and rescued the family.

ii. The lesson is plain. Knowing God provides should make us more generous, instead of less generous ("I don't have to give to their need, because God will provide for them some other way").

d. The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former: The glory of this temple was in fact greater. First, Herod remodeled this second temple into something greater than Solomon's temple. Second, the LORD of Glory - Jesus - personally visited it and worshipped there.

i. "Because Christ shall appear and preach in it, who is the brightness of his Father's glory." (Trapp)

ii. Some scholars speculate that Herod remodeled the temple with the intent of fulfilling the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, so that he might fulfill it instead of the Messiah.

e. And in this place I will give peace: The promised peace is shalom. It means far more than stopping conflict - it is the establishment of a lasting, righteous, good.

B. The third word from God: clean and unclean.

1. (10-14) A question for the priests.

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Now, ask the priests concerning the law, saying, "If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?"' " Then the priests answered and said, "No." And Haggai said, "If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?" So the priests answered and said, "It shall be unclean." Then Haggai answered and said, " 'So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,' says the LORD, 'and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.

a. Will it become holy? Will it be unclean? Haggai questions the priests - who were accustomed to answering such questions - about the transmission of both holiness and impurity. The priests answered correctly according to the Law of Moses: holiness is not "contagious," but impurity is.

i. A sick child cannot catch "health" from contacting a healthy child; but the healthy child can become sick. The principle of transmission really only works one way far more than both ways.

b. So is this people, and so is this nation before Me: On the same principle, living in the Holy Land and offering sacrifices will not make the people acceptable, as long as they themselves are unclean through neglect of the house of the LORD.

i. Since the exile to Babylon, the people of Israel focused on getting back to the Promised Land. In and of itself this was not a bad focus; yet it led to the thinking that once they made it back to the Promised Land everything else would just fall into place. Haggai reminds them that their presence in the Promised Land doesn't make everything they do holy. If the priorities of our heart are wrong, nothing we do is really holy to God.

ii. "The ruined skeleton of the Temple was like a dead body decaying in Jerusalem and making everything contaminated." (Baldwin)

2. (15-19) God sees their change of heart and promises a harvest of blessing to come.

'And now, carefully consider from this day forward: from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the LORD; since those days, when one came to a heap of twenty ephahs, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty baths from the press, there were but twenty. I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you did not turn to Me,' says the LORD. Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid; consider it: Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you.'"

a. I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you did not turn to Me: The experiences were real but God's people did not learn from them. Tough times don't necessarily bring us closer to God.

b. But from this day I will bless you: God promised blessing to His people if they put their priorities back in order, with Him and His work first. Nevertheless, the blessings might not come immediately and He did not want them to become discouraged, but to trust that that from this day I will bless you.

C. The final word from God: God rules.

1. (20-22) God asserts His sovereignty over the nations.

And again the word of the LORD came to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying: 'I will shake heaven and earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them; the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.'"

a. I will shake heaven and earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms: It was easy for the returning exiles to feel insignificant in the world, as if they were just pawns or spectators. God wanted them to know that though they were small in the eyes of the superpowers of the world, they were servants of the God of all power - they are on the winning side.

b. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them: This word of encouragement shows us that Haggai's messages from God are a mixture of rebuke and encouragement.

2. (23) A promise to Zerubbabel.

'In that day,' says the LORD of hosts, 'I will take you, Zerubbabel My servant, the son of Shealtiel,' says the LORD, 'and will make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you,' says the LORD of hosts."

a. I will take you, Zerubbabel . . . and will make you like a signet ring: The signet ring was a token of royal authority much like a throne, a crown, or a scepter.

i. "This is not a personal assurance only to Zerubbabel, for neither he nor his natural seed reigned in Jerusalem, or rose to any special eminence in the kingdoms of this world." (Pulpit)

b. For I have chosen you: What was so special about Zerubbabel? He truly was chosen of God - in the ancestry of Jesus, Zerubbabel was the last person to stand to be in both the line of Mary (the blood lineage of Jesus - Luke 3:27) and Joseph (the legal lineage of Jesus through Joseph - Matthew 1:12).

i. God used these two lines of ancestry for Jesus because He placed a curse on the seed of Jechoniah (also known as Coniah or Jehoiachin) as recorded in Jeremiah 22:30. That line was royal line of David, so if the Messiah was to qualify for the throne of David (Luke 1:31-33), he had to be of the legal line of David, yet not of his seed.

ii. Jechoniah was the last legitimate king of Judah and the royal House of David goes through him. His only successor was Zedekiah, his uncle who was appointed not by right, but by an occupying Babylonian ruler (2 Kings 24:17-20). Even at the end of his life, the Babylonians recognized Jechoniah as the legitimate king of Judah (2 Kings 25:27-30)

iii. Because Zerubbabel was a descendant of the last legitimate king of Judah, he could be legitimately recognized as the ruler (though not king) of the returning exiles.

© 2001 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Haggai (Book Introduction)

THE name Haggai means "my feast"; given, according to COCCEIUS, in anticipation of the joyous return from exile. He probably was one of the Jewish exiles (of the tribes Judah, Benjamin, and Levi) who returned under Zerubbabel, the civil head of the people, and Joshua, the high priest, 536 B.C., when Cyrus (actuated by the striking prophecies as to himself, Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1) granted them their liberty, and furnished them with the necessaries for restoring the temple (2Ch 36:23; Ezr 1:1; Ezr 2:2). The work of rebuilding went on under Cyrus and his successor Cambyses (called Ahasuerus in Ezr 4:6) in spite of opposition from the Samaritans, who, when their offers of help were declined, began to try to hinder it. These at last obtained an interdict from the usurper Smerdis the Magian (called Artaxerxes in Ezra 4:7-23), whose suspicions were easy to rouse. The Jews thereupon became so indifferent to the work that when Darius came to the throne (521 B.C.), virtually setting aside the prohibitions of the usurper, instead of recommencing their labors, they pretended that as the prophecy of the seventy years applied to the temple as well as to the captivity in Babylon (Hag 1:2), they were only in the sixty-eighth year of it [HENDERSON]; so that, the proper time not having yet arrived, they might devote themselves to building splendid mansions for themselves. Haggai and Zechariah were commissioned by Jehovah (Hag 1:1) in the second year of Darius (Hystaspes), 520 B.C., sixteen years after the return under Zerubbabel, to rouse them from their selfishness to resume the work which for fourteen years had been suspended. Haggai preceded Zechariah in the work by two months.

The dates of his four distinct prophecies are accurately given: (1) The first (Hag 1:1-15), on the first day of the sixth month of the second year of Darius, 520 B.C., reproved the people for their apathy in allowing the temple to lie in ruins and reminded them of their ill success in everything because of their not honoring God as to His house. The result was that twenty-four days afterwards they commenced building under Zerubbabel (Hag 1:12-15). (2) The second, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month (Hag 2:1-9), predicts that the glory of the new temple would be greater than that of Solomon's, so that the people need not be discouraged by the inferiority in outward splendor of the new, as compared with the old temple, which had so moved to tears the elders who had remembered the old (Ezr 3:12-13). Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel had implied the same prediction, whence some had doubted whether they ought to proceed with a building so inferior to the former one; but Haggai shows wherein the superior glory was to consist, namely, in the presence of Him who is the "desire of all nations" (Hag 2:7). (3) The third, on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (Hag 2:10-19), refers to a period when building materials had been collected, and the workmen had begun to put them together, from which time forth God promises His blessing; it begins with removing their past error as to the efficacy of mere outward observances to cleanse from the taint of disobedience as to the temple building. (4) The fourth (Hag 2:20-23), on the same day as the preceding, was addressed to Zerubbabel, as the representative of the theocratic people, and as having asked as to the national revolutions spoken of in the second prophecy (Hag 2:7).

The prophecies are all so brief as to suggest the supposition that they are only a summary of the original discourses. The space occupied is but three months from the first to the last.

The Jews' adversaries, on the resumption of the work under Zerubbabel, Haggai, and Zechariah, tried to set Darius against it; but that monarch confirmed Cyrus' decree and ordered all help to be given to the building of the temple (Ezr 5:3, &c.; Ezr 6:1, &c.). So the temple was completed in the sixth year of Darius' reign 516-515 B.C. (Ezr 6:14).

The style of Haggai is consonant with his messages: pathetic in exhortation, vehement in reproofs, elevated in contemplating the glorious future. The repetition of the same phrases (for example, "saith the Lord," or "the Lord of hosts," Hag 1:2, Hag 1:5, Hag 1:7; and thrice in one verse, Hag 2:4; so "the spirit," thrice in one verse, Hag 1:14) gives a simple earnestness to his style, calculated to awaken the solemn attention of the people, and to awaken them from their apathy, to which also the interrogatory form, often adopted, especially tends. Chaldaisms occur (Hag 2:3; Hag 2:6; Hag 2:16), as might have been expected in a writer who was so long in Chaldea. Parts are purely prose history; the rest is somewhat rhythmical, and observant of poetic parallelism.

Haggai is referred to in Ezr 5:1; Ezr 6:14; and in the New Testament (Heb 12:26; compare Hag 2:6-7, Hag 2:22).

JFB: Haggai (Outline)

• HAGGAI CALLS THE PEOPLE TO CONSIDER THEIR WAYS IN NEGLECTING TO BUILD GOD'S HOUSE: THE EVIL OF THIS NEGLECT TO THEMSELVES: THE HONOR TO GOD OF ATTENDING TO IT: THE PEOPLE'S PENITENT OBEDIENCE UNDER ZERUBBABEL FOLLOWED BY GOD'S GRACIOUS ASSURANCE. (Hag 1:1-15)
• SECOND PROPHECY. The people, discouraged at the inferiority of this temple to Solomon's, are encouraged nevertheless to persevere, because God is with them, and this house by its connection with Messiah's kingdom shall have a glory far above that of gold and silver. (Hag 2:1-9)
• THIRD PROPHECY. Sacrifices without obedience (in respect to God's command to build the temple) could not sanctify. Now that they are obedient, God will bless them, though no sign is seen of fertility as yet. (Hag 2:10-19)
• FOURTH PROPHECY. God's promise through Zerubbabel to Israel of safety in the coming commotions. (Hag 2:20-23)

TSK: Haggai 2 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Hag 2:1, He encourages the people to the work, by promise of greater glory to the second temple than was in the first; Hag 2:10, In the type of holy things and unclean he shews their sins hindered the work; Hag 2:20, God’s promise to Zerubbabel.

Poole: Haggai (Book Introduction)

THE ARGUMENT

Haggai is the first prophet that appears in the name of the Lord of hosts, to awaken, reprove, direct, exhort, and encourage both the governor, high priest, and people, returned out of captivity, to the restoring and settling the worship of God, to the rebuilding the temple, whose foundations, together with the altar of burnt-offering, had been laid seventeen or eighteen years ago; but the finishing of the temple prohibited by Cambyses all the time of his being viceroy to his father Cyrus, and during his own reign; and neglected near two years in Darius Hystaspes’ s time, through the covetousness of many, the coldness of some, and the cowardice of others among the Jews, who were all bent on their own private concerns, and pleaded it was not time to set about the building of God’ s temple, and who in all probability would have deferred it much longer had they been let alone: now therefore the Lord doth, in zeal for his own glory, and in mercy to his people, send his servant Haggai to awaken them to their duty, which was this, the building the temple, and restoring the pure worship of God. He reproves them for neglecting this; tells them this sin was the cause of the penury and scarcity which afflicted them these fifteen or sixteen years past; assures them that, so soon as ever they begin the work, their ground, their cattle, their vines and olives, should wonderfully increase their store; promiseth God’ s presence with them, and with it a supply of gold and silver, which are his, and he will, as he did by the bounty of Darius and the contributions of others, bring in to them; and though the external glory of this temple were less than that of the first temple, yet this second temple should exceed the first in glory for so much as their expected, longed-for, and the blessed Messiah should appear in it. All which, as they were weighty arguments in themselves considered, so, through the co-operation of the Spirit of God, they prevailed with his hearers, who set about the work; and when opposed by their enemies, who sent to Darius to solicit him to renew the prohibition, he on the contrary confirms and enlargeth their charter granted by the grand Cyrus, and annexeth severe penalties on all that dare hinder this work; all which particularly, and at large, are set down in the sixth and seventh chapters of Ezra. And so in four years’ time the temple is finished, the feast of dedication is celebrated, and the final issue answers to the name of the prophet who, sent of God, set it forwards, Haggai, who hath his name from the word that signifieth a feast, as if we should call him Festivus. He closeth all with a close prediction of many and long wars and seditions to come among the Gentiles, to the overthrow of the enemies of the Jews.

MHCC: Haggai (Book Introduction)

After the return from captivity, Haggai was sent to encourage the people to rebuild the temple, and to reprove their neglect. To encourage their undertaking, the people are assured that the glory of the second temple shall far exceed that of the first, by the appearing therein of Christ, the Desire of all nations.

MHCC: Haggai 2 (Chapter Introduction)

(Hag 2:1-9) Greater glory promised to the second temple than to the first.

(Hag 2:10-19) Their sins hindered the work.

(Hag 2:20-23) The kingdom of Christ foretold.

Matthew Henry: Haggai (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Prophecy of Haggai

The captivity in Babylon gave a very remarkable turn to the affairs of the Jewish church both in history and prophecy. It is made a signal epocha in our Saviour's genealogy, Mat 1:17. Nine of the twelve minor prophets, whose oracles we have been hitherto consulting, lived and preached before that captivity, and most of them had an eye to it in their prophecies, foretelling it as the just punishment of Jerusalem's wickedness. But the last three (in whom the Spirit of prophecy took its period, until it revived in Christ's forerunner) lived and preached after the return out of captivity, not immediately upon it, but some time after. Haggai and Zechariah appeared much about the same time, eighteen years after the return, when the building of the temple was both retarded by its enemies and neglected by its friends. Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them (so we read Ezr 5:1), to reprove them for their remissness, and to encourage them to revive that good work when it had stood still for some time, and to go on with it vigorously, notwithstanding the opposition they met with in it. Haggai began two months before Zechariah, who was raised up to second him, that out of the mouth of two witnesses the word might be established. But Zechariah continued longer at the work; for all Haggai's prophecies that are recorded were delivered within four months, in the second year of Darius, between the beginning of the sixth month and the end of the ninth. But we have Zechariah's prophecies dated above two years after, Zec 7:1. Some have the honour to lead, others to last, in the work of God. The Jews ascribe to these two prophets the honour of being members of the great synagogue (as they call it), which was formed after the return out of captivity; we think it more certain, and it was their honour, and a much greater honour, that they prophesied of Christ. Haggai spoke of him as the glory of the latter house, and Zechariah as the man, the branch. In them the light of that morning star shone more brightly than in the foregoing prophecies, as they lived nearer the time of the rising of the Sun of righteousness, and now began to see his day approaching. The Septuagint makes Haggai and Zechariah to be the penmen of Psa 138:1-8 and Psa 146:1-10,147, and Psa 148:1-14.

Matthew Henry: Haggai 2 (Chapter Introduction)

In this chapter we have three sermons preached by the prophet Haggai for the encouragement of those that are forward to build the temple. In the first he assures the builders that the glory of the house they were now building should, in spiritual respects, though not in outward, exceed that of Solomon's temple, in which he has an eye to the coming of Christ (Hag 2:1-9). In the second he assures them that though their sin, in delaying to build the temple, had retarded the prosperous progress of all their other affairs, yet now that they had set about it in good earnest he would bless them, and give them success (Hag 2:10-19). In the third he assures Zerubbabel that, as a reward of his pious zeal and activity herein, he should be a favourite of Heaven, and one of the ancestors of Messiah the Prince, whose kingdom should be set up on the ruins of all opposing powers (Hag 2:20-23).

Constable: Haggai (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Title and Writer

The title of this prophetic book is also the name of its writer.

Haggai referred to himself as simply "the prophet Haggai" (1:1; et al.) We know nothing about Haggai's parents, ancestors, or tribal origin. His name apparently means "festal" or possibly "feast of Yahweh."¹ It is a form of the Hebrew word hag, meaning "feast." This has led some students of the book to speculate that Haggai's birth may have occurred on one of Israel's feasts. Ezra mentioned that through the prophetic ministries of Haggai and Zechariah the returned Jewish exiles resumed and completed the restoration of their temple (Ezra 5:1; 6:14; cf. Zech. 8:9; 1 Esdras 6:1; 7:3; 2 Esdras 1:40; Ecclesiasticus 49:11). Haggai's reference to the former glory of the temple before the Babylonians destroyed it (2:2) may or may not imply that he saw that temple. If he did, he would have been an old man when he delivered the messages that this book contains. In this case he may have been over 70 years old when he prophesied. However it is not at all certain that the reference in 2:2 implies that he saw the former temple.

Some editions of the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate versions of the Book of Psalms attribute authorship of some of the Psalms to Haggai and or Zechariah (i.e., Ps. 111-112, 125-126, 137-138, and 145-149). There is no other evidence that either prophet wrote any of these psalms. The reason for the connection appears to have been the close association that these prophets had with the temple where these psalms were sung.

Historical Background

The Babylonians, led by King Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed the city of Jerusalem, including Solomon's temple, in 586 B.C. and took most of the Jews captive to Babylon. There the Israelites could not practice their formal worship (religious cult) as the Mosaic Law prescribed because they lacked an authorized altar and temple. They prayed toward Jerusalem privately (cf. Dan. 6:10) and probably publicly, and they established synagogues where they assembled to hear their Law read and to worship God informally. King Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jewish exiles to return to their land in 538 B.C. At least three waves of returnees took advantage of this opportunity. The first of these was the group of almost 50,000 Jews that returned under the leadership of Sheshbazzar, and Zerubbabel who replaced him, in 537 B.C. (Ezra 1:2-4).² Haggai and Zechariah appear to have been two of these returnees, as was Joshua the high priest, though Haggai's name does not appear in the lists of returnees in the opening chapters of Ezra. During the year that followed, these returnees rebuilt the brazen altar in Jerusalem, resumed offering sacrifices on it, celebrated the feast of Tabernacles, and laid the foundation for the reconstruction of the (second) temple. Opposition to the rebuilding of the temple resulted in the postponement of construction for 16 years. During this long period apathy toward temple reconstruction set in among the residents of Judah and Jerusalem. Then in 520 B.C., as a result of changes in the Persian government and the preaching of Haggai, the people resumed rebuilding the temple.³ They finished the project about five years later in 515 B.C. (cf. Ezra 1-6).⁴ Haggai first sounded the call to resume construction, and Zechariah soon joined him. Zechariah's ministry lasted longer than Haggai's.

Date

Haggai delivered four messages to the restoration community, and he dated all of them in the second year of King Darius I (Hystaspes) of Persia (i.e., 520 B.C.). His ministry, as this book records it, spanned less than four months, from the first day of the sixth month (1:1) to the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (2:20). In the modern calendar this would have been between August 29 and December 18, 520 B.C. This means that Haggai was the first prophet to address the returned Israelites since Zechariah began prophesying to the returnees in the eighth month of that same year (Zech. 1:1). Haggai was the most precise of the prophets in dating his messages.

The precision in dating prophecies that marks Haggai and Zechariah reflects the annalistic style of history writing that distinguished Neo-Babylonian and Persian times.⁵ Ezekiel, an older contemporary of these prophets, was the third most precise in dating his prophecies, and Daniel, another contemporary, also was precise but not as detailed. Likewise Ezra and Nehemiah, who wrote after Haggai and Zechariah, showed the same interest in chronological precision.

Place of Composition

Haggai obviously preached and wrote in Jerusalem as is clear from his references to the temple in both chapters. Confirming this location is his reference to the nearby mountains (1:8, 11). There were no real mountains in Babylonia.

Audience and Purpose

Haggai was as specific about his audience as he was about when he prophesied. The first oracle was for Zerubbabel and Joshua, the Jewish governor of Judah and its high priest (1:1). The prophet delivered the second one to those men and the remnant of the people (2:1). The third oracle was for the priests (2:11), and the fourth one was for Zerubbabel (2:21). Obviously these oracles had a larger audience as well, namely, the entire restoration community and eventually the general population of the world.

Haggai's purpose was simple and clear. It was to motivate the Jews to build the temple. To do this he also fulfilled a secondary purpose: he confronted the people with their misplaced priorities. They were building their own houses but had neglected God's house. It was important to finish building the temple because only then could the people fully resume Levitical worship as the Lord had specified. They had gone into captivity for covenant unfaithfulness. Thus they needed to return to full obedience to the Mosaic Covenant. Furthermore, in the ancient Near East the glory of a nation's temple(s) reflected the glory of the people's god(s). So to finish the temple meant to glorify Yahweh.

". . . he also wrote to give the people hope by announcing that God's program of blessing would come in a little while' (Hag. 2:6) when God would again shake the heavens and the earth' (2:6, 21)."⁶

Theological emphases

Central to Haggai's emphasis is the temple as God's dwelling place on earth, as a center for worship, and as a symbol of Yahweh's greatness. For him the temple was more important than the palace, and the priests were more important than the princes. (There was no king of the Jews after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.) Another theological emphasis was the relative importance of glorifying God compared to living luxuriously.

Characteristic features

Haggai is the second shortest book of the Old Testament, after Obadiah. The writer's literary style is simple and direct. The book is a mixture of prose and poetry, the introductory sections being prose and the oracles poetry. The book contains four short messages that Haggai preached to the returned Jews during one year, 520 B.C. Haggai was clearly aware that the messages he preached to the Israelites were from God. He affirmed their divine authority 25 times. In contrast to almost all the writing prophets, Haggai was successful in that the people to whom he preached listened to him and obeyed his exhortations.⁷

"The truth is that few prophets have succeeded in packing into such brief compass so much spiritual common sense as Haggai did."⁸

"Interestingly, Haggai's message has none of the elements so characteristic of the other biblical prophets. For instance, he wrote no diatribe against idolatry. He said nothing of social ills and abuses of the legal system, nor did he preach against adultery or syncretism. His one theme was rebuilding God's temple."⁹

Unity and canonicity

Critics have not seriously challenged either the unity or the canonicity of Haggai. Its place in the canon is chronological, leading the postexilic prophetical books and following the pre-exilic and exilic ones.

Message¹⁰

Haggai is the first in the last group of prophetic Old Testament books. Along with Zechariah and Malachi, these books reveal life in the restoration community. The historical book of Ezra deals with the same time period and the same group of people. A remnant of the Israelites were back in the land following the Babylonian Captivity. The returnees remembered stories of the past glories of their nation, before the Captivity. But they also felt great shame since they returned to a land controlled by the Gentiles. They lived in difficult and discouraging times. Their hopes were very shadowy and uncertain in the short range.

Haggai had a single burden from the Lord. His passion was to motivate the returnees to rebuild their temple. Zechariah helped him in this mission. Malachi lived some 90 years later and uttered the final warning from Yahweh to His people in the Old Testament.

About 18 years before Haggai ministered, in 538 B.C., about 40,000 Jews had returned from captivity under the leadership of Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel. A year later they began to rebuild the temple. They had finished repairing the foundation and were starting on the superstructure when opposition from the native people of the land, the Samaritans, made them stop working. For about 17 years they did no work on the temple. Then the Lord led Haggai to challenge the people to resume temple reconstruction. He delivered four short messages in 520 B.C. that got the people working again. The people went to work after hearing his first message, but then a difficulty arose and they stopped working. He delivered a second message, and the people got back to work. After a while, another difficulty arose and the people stopped working again. Haggai then delivered two messages on the same day, which moved the Jews to resume and finish their project.

The reason God preserved this book for all time and for all humanity is its permanent value, which is twofold. The Book of Haggai, first, is a revelation of the perils that often accompany a period of adversity. Second, it reveals the duty of people of faith in such a period and God's resources. In other words, Haggai exposes the perils that accompany times when there are discouraging circumstances and hope burns dim. And it helps us see what the duty of God's people should be in such times and how God will help us.

Each of Haggai's four messages deals with one of these perils. The four perils are misplaced priority, incorrect perspective, unrealistic expectation, and unnecessary fear.

The first peril was a problem of misplaced priority. The people did not think the time was right to proceed with the rebuilding of the temple (1:2). They seem to have been waiting for some indication from God that they should resume building, but they were busy building their own houses and had forgotten God's previous commands to rebuild the temple. They were very practical when it came to building homes for themselves. They saw the need and proceeded to do something about it. But when it came to building a house that would honor Yahweh, enable them to worship Him as He had commanded, and exalt His reputation in their land, they were waiting. Seventeen years had passed. It was time to finish the unfinished temple structure, but the people put it on hold while they gave priority to what was more important to them.

The second peril was a problem of incorrect perspective. When the workers began rebuilding again, some of the people started comparing the structure they were working on to the previous temple that the Babylonians had destroyed. They were saying that the present temple was nothing in comparison to Solomon's temple (2:3). Some of the older people, who had seen the former temple, could not help weeping when they compared the two structures. It looked as though all their work would amount to nothing significant, and so they became discouraged and stopped working.

The third peril was a problem of unrealistic expectation. The people thought that because they had taken on the project of rebuilding the temple, God would begin to bless them greatly. They looked at their external obedience as what God should bless (2:12). Haggai reminded them that it was wholehearted devotion to God that was necessary to obtain His blessing, not just piling stone upon stone.

The fourth peril was a problem of unnecessary fear. The people looked at the strength of the Gentile nations around them and concluded that their small community would never amount to anything. Haggai had to remind them that God would judge the Gentile nations one day. They needed to look beyond the immediate future and believe God's promises concerning Israel's ultimate restoration and exaltation over the nations (2:21-22).

God led Haggai to meet each one of these problems by reminding the people of their duty and their dynamic. They had a responsibility to do something different in each case, and then God would provide the enabling grace for them to succeed, the spiritual dynamic.

In regard to their problem of misplaced priorities, the people's duty was to get back to rebuilding the temple (1:8). They needed to give priority to what God said they should do rather than to what they wanted to do. The dynamic that God would provide was His enabling presence with them. He would be with them (1:13).

With regard to their problem of incorrect perspective, their duty was to be strong and work. They should not compare the work God had given them to do with the work He had given their ancestors to do. They should simply give themselves to carrying out the will of God for them. The dynamic God promised to provide was again His own presence with them (2:4). He would help them do what He had called them to do.

Regarding their problem of unrealistic expectation, their duty was to learn from their priests, who would get the Lord's will from Torah, that blessing would come in response to genuine obedience. It was not enough to simply rebuild the temple. That was only part of God's will for His people, and not really the most important part. More important was that they should genuinely seek to exalt the Lord in their lives by following Him faithfully. The dynamic Yahweh promised for such heartfelt obedience was blessing on their lives (2:19). From the day the returnees turned their hearts to obey the Lord, He would bless them. But they should not expect much blessing if their obedience was only external.

Fourth, in regard to their problem of unnecessary fear, the people's duty was to be patient. They might not see a reversal of conditions in the immediate future, but eventually God would restore His people, as He promised. The dynamic God promised them was His own acting in time to reverse their fortunes (2:22-23). The Gentiles would not lord it over them forever. Their present leader, Zerubbabel, was only a foreview of a greater leader whom God would provide for them in the future. We know that the times of the Gentiles will come to an end when Jesus Christ returns to the earth to reign.

We are now in a position to point out the living message of this book. It is that whenever God's people face problems involving fulfilling His will, we should do our duty as the Word of God reveals it with the assurance that when we do God Himself will provide all that we need to succeed.

We often get our priorities out of order. We wait for direction from God to act when He has already told us what He wants us to do. While we wait, we get involved in matters that occupy our energy and resources that are self-directed. What we should be doing is reading the Word, learning what God wants us to do, and then putting first things first. We need to make His agenda our agenda. When we do this, He will be with us and will provide all we need to carry out His will successfully (cf. Matt. 6:33).

We also frequently lose the proper perspective on what God has called us to do. We look at our part of the enterprise of fulfilling the Great Commission, and we think to ourselves, "How insignificant this is. If only I was living when Hudson Taylor lived, maybe then I could really change the world. Better yet, if only I lived in the days of the apostles." It is easy for many Christians to get so distracted by looking at the great things other Christians have done in the past that we conclude that our little contribution is so insignificant that it is not worth the time and effort. If that is our problem, we need to remind ourselves that the same God who enabled saints of old to succeed has promised to be with us and to enable us to succeed in our calling. We may live in days of apostasy rather than in the glory days when Christ was more greatly honored in the world. Nevertheless our task in the will of God is just as important now as the task of other believers in days gone by was then. Focus on what God has given you to do, not on what others did.

We struggle with unrealistic expectations, too, as the postexilic community did. Why isn't our church growing faster? Why aren't we seeing more fruit from our ministry? Why don't we see more spiritual power in our lives? Ultimately all these blessings come by the will of a sovereign God who chooses to bless whom and how He will. We tend to underrate the importance of personal holiness and to emphasize activity, just like the returned exiles did. Perhaps God is not blessing more because our commitment is superficial and shallow. If we expect His blessing simply because we are doing His work, we need to look deeper into ourselves and into His Word. God will bless if we follow Him wholeheartedly. We may not see the blessing this side of the grave, but since He has promised to bless those who follow Him sincerely, we can count on His blessing eventually. In the meantime our duty is to get real.

Finally, we also struggle with unnecessary fear from time to time. The enemy looks so strong. We look so weak. Things have not changed much for a long time. But our duty is to be patient, to remember and to believe the promises that the Lord will return and balance the scales of justice one day (cf. 2 Pet. 3:8-13). He will establish His kingdom on the earth. Our duty now is to be strong and to work.

Constable: Haggai (Outline)

Outline

I. A call to build the temple ch. 1

A. Haggai's first challenge 1:1-6

B. Haggai's second challenge 1:7-11

C. The Israelites' response 1:12-15

II. A promise of future glory for the temple 2:1-9

III. A promise of future blessing for the people 2:10-19

IV. A prophecy concerning Zerubbabel 2:20-23

Constable: Haggai

Haggai

Bibliography

Alden, Robert L. "Haggai." In Daniel-Minor Prophets. Vol. 7 of The Expositor's Bible Commentary. 12 vols. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein and Richard P. Polcyn. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1985.

Chisholm, Robert B., Jr. "A Theology of the Minor Prophets." In A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, pp. 397-433. Edited by Roy B. Zuck. Chicago: Moody Press, 1991.

Dyer, Charles H., and Eugene H. Merrill. The Old Testament Explorer. Nashville: Word Publishing, 2001.

Gaebelein, Frank E. Four Minor Prophets (Obadiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, and Haggai): Their Message for Today. Chicago: Moody Press, 1970.

Hamerton-Kelly, R. G. "The Temple and the Origins of Jewish Apocalyptic." Vetus Testamentum 20 (1976):1-15.

Lindsey, F. Duane. "Haggai." In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, pp. 1537-44. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1985.

Merrill, Eugene H. An Exegetical Commentary: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Chicago: Moody Press, 1994.

Parker, Richard A., and Waldo H. Dubberstein. Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.-A.D. 75. Providence, R.I.: Brown University, 1956.

Verhoef, Pieter A. The Books of Haggai and Malachi. New International Commentary on the Old Testaement series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987.

Wiseman, D. J. Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings (625-556 B.C.) in the British Museum. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1961.

Wolf, Herbert. "The Desire of All Nations in Haggai 2:7: Messianic or Not?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 19 (1976):97-102.

_____. Haggai and Malachi. Everyman's Bible Commentary series. Chicago: Moody Press, 1976.

Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Haggai (Book Introduction)

THE PROPHECY OF AGGEUS.

INTRODUCTION.

Aggeus was one of those that returned from the captivity of Babylon, in the first year of the reign of king Cyrus. He was sent by the Lord in the second year of the reign of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, to exhort Zorobabel, the prince of Juda, and Jesus, the high priest, to the building of the temple; which they had begun, but left off again through opposition of the Samaritans. In consequence of this exhortation, they proceeded in the building, and finished the temple. And the prophet was commissioned by the Lord to assure them that this second temple should be more glorious than the former, because the Messias should honour it with his presence; signifying, withal, how much the Church of the new testament should excel that of the old testament. (Calmet) --- The glory of the Catholic Church hence appears. (Worthington) --- We know little of the life of Aggeus. It is thought that he was born in captivity. (Calmet) --- He came into Judea eighteen years after its termination, (Worthington) in the second year of Hystaspes, when the seventy years of the temple's desolation ended, Zacharias i. 12., and 1 Esdras v. The people had courage to obey the word of the prophets rather than the king's edict. Aggeus means feasting, (St. Jerome) or pleasant. He brings joyful tidings, after rebuking the people for preferring their own convenience before the house of God. (Haydock)

Gill: Haggai (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO HAGGAI

This part of sacred Scripture is in some Hebrew copies called "Sepher Haggai", the Book, of Haggai; in the Vulgate Latin version, the Prophecy of Haggai; and, in the Syriac and Arabic versions, the Prophecy of the Prophet Haggai. His name comes from a word ^a which signifies to keep a feast; and, according to Jerom ^b, signifies festival or merry; according to Hillerus ^c, the feasts of the Lord; and, according to Cocceius ^d, my feasts: and the issue of his prophecy answered to his name; by which the people were encouraged to build the temple, whereby the feasts of the Lord were restored and observed; and a particular feast appointed for the dedication of the temple. The notion entertained by some, that he was not a man, but an angel, founded on Hag 1:13, deserves no regard; since the character there given of him respects not his nature, but his office. Indeed no account is given of his parentage; very probably he was born in Babylon; and, according to Pseudo-Epiphanius ^e and Isidore ^f, he came from thence a youth to Jerusalem, at the return of the Jews from their captivity. The time of his prophecy is fixed in Hag 1:1 to the second year of Darius, that is, Hystaspis; which, according to Bishop Usher, was in A. M. 3485 or 519 B.C.; and in the sixty fifth Olympiad; about 520 B.C.; and about seventeen or eighteen years after the proclamation of Cyrus for the Jews to return to their own land. Jerom says this was in the twenty seventh year of Tarquinius Superbus, the last of the Roman kings. Haggai was the first of the three prophets, that prophesied after their return; and all his prophecies were within the space of four months, and have their dates variously put to them. Of the authority of this prophecy of Haggai there is no room to question; not only because of the internal evidence of it, but from the testimony of Ezra, Ezr 4:24 and from a quotation out of Hag 2:7, by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 12:26. The general design of this book is to reprove the Jews for their negligence in building the temple, after they had liberty granted them by Cyrus to do it, and to encourage them in this work; which he does by the promise of the Messiah, who should come into it, and give it a greater glory than the first temple had. The name of this prophet is wrongly prefixed, with others, to several of the psalms, especially those, called the Hallelujah psalms, in the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, as Psa 112:1. Where he died is not certain; very probably in Jerusalem; where, according to Pseudo-Epiphanius and Isidore ^g, he was buried, by the monuments of the priests; but, according to the Cippi Hebraici ^h, he was buried in a large cave, in the declivity of the mount of Olives.

Gill: Haggai 2 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO HAGGAI 2

This chapter contains three sermons or prophecies, delivered by the prophet to the people of the Jews. The design of the first is to encourage them to go on with the building of the temple, though it might seem to come greatly short of the former temple, as to its outward form and splendour. The time of the prophecy, Hag 2:1 an order to deliver it to the governor, high priest, and all the people, Hag 2:2. A question is put concerning the difference between this temple and the former; between which it is suggested there was no comparison; which is assented to by silence, Hag 2:3 nevertheless, the prince, priest, and people, are exhorted to go on strenuously in the work of building; encouraged with a promise of the presence of the Lord of hosts, and of his Word, in whom he covenanted with them at their coming out of Egypt, and of the blessed Spirit, and his continuance with them, Hag 2:4 and, the more to remove their fears and faintings, it is declared that in a very short time a most wonderful thing should be done in the world, which would affect all the nations of the earth; for that illustrious Person would come, whom all nations do or should desire; and, not only come into the world, but into that temple they were building, and give it a greater glory than the former; yea, a greater glory than if all the gold and silver in the world were laid out upon it, or brought into it; which being all the Lord's, could have been easily done by him; but he would give in it something infinitely greater than that, even the Prince of peace, with all the blessings of it, Hag 2:6 then follows the second sermon or prophecy, the time of which is observed, Hag 2:10 and it is introduced with some questions concerning ceremonial uncleanness, by an unclean person's touching holy flesh with the skirt of his garment; and other things, which is confirmed by the answer of the priests, Hag 2:11 the application of which is made to the people of the Jews, who were alike unclean; they, their works, and their sacrifices, Hag 2:14 and these are directed to consider, that, during the time they had neglected to build the temple, they were attended with scarcity of provisions; their fields and vineyards being blasted with mildew or destroyed by hail, and their labours proved unsuccessful, Hag 2:15 but now, since they had begun the work of building, it is promised they should be blessed with everything, though they had nothing in store, and everything was unpromising to them; which is designed to encourage them to go on cheerfully in their begun work, Hag 2:18 and the chapter is concluded with the last discourse or prophecy, the date of which is given, Hag 2:20 an instruction to deliver it to Zerubbabel, Hag 2:21 foretelling the destruction of the kingdoms of the heathen; and the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah, of whom Zerubbabel was a type, precious and honourable in the sight of God, Hag 2:22.