There's more glory to come
Haggai 2:6-9
11th September 2020
We looked at the first half of Haggai's fourth prophecy last week. As the foundation of the temple was completed, God spoke through him, urging all the people, from the most powerful to the least, to get involved, to work, to complete the job of rebuilding the temple. Some of the people were discouraged because the new temple didn't look nearly as impressive as the original, but God reassured them, saying He was with them, which is all we need, really.
The second half of this prophecy is:
Haggai 2v6-9
"This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'In a little while I will once more shake the
heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill
this house with glory,' says the Lord Almighty.
'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the Lord Almighty.
'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,'
says the Lord Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the Lord
Almighty."
Some think these words about shaking heavens and earth apply to the second coming of Jesus Christ at the end of history. They may, but they also apply to all of history. When God speaks like this, He's usually predicting great political upheaval. After Haggai's time, the Medo-Persian empire would be destroyed by the Greeks under Alexander the Great. Later, the Jews would be persecuted by Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria. After that, the Greek empire in turn would be destroyed by the Romans, and the Romans would invade and occupy Israel.
Political upheaval is normal. After the Romans, empires continued to rise and fall, and they still do.
God promises to shake all nations, and He promises that the desired of all nations will come to Jerusalem. It would be nice if we could apply that part of the prophecy to Jesus Christ; He certainly is the desired of the nations, but for linguistic reasons, we know that the desired of all nations here is plural, not singular. It almost certainly refers to desired things, not a desired Person, and this is confirmed in the next sentence, The silver is mine and the gold is mine," declares the Lord Almighty.
God was promising that, although the new temple looked humble in Haggai's time, the day would dawn when the temple would be filled with gold and silver again, just as the original temple had been before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it. This part of the prophecy was fulfilled in the reign of Herod the Great - of all people - who restored the second temple and filled it with riches. God uses the most unlikely people to fulfil His purposes.
And God said, "The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house". God's people in Haggai's time couldn't envisage how the new temple could grow to become more glorious than Solomon's temple, but it did.
You and I may not be able to believe that our local churches can become more glorious than they were before lockdown, but they can. Our role in all of this is to believe that God is with us, even in these difficult days, and to work. You may not even be able to see a way you can work for God's glory at the moment, but God will find a way for your life to glorify Him, if you'll seek it.
The second temple, built in Haggai's time, grew to become splendid in Herod's time, and then it received the greatest possible glory. Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, rode into Jerusalem, entered the temple, and taught there. The Lord of Lords came physically into His own house.
What is the future glory for your local church? I don't know. perhaps you'll find a new holiness, a new faithfulness, a new love. Perhaps God will come to you in revival power. One thing we can be sure of is this: God hasn't finished with us yet.