Haggai 2 God’s Glory Promised

It’s been a month now since the Jewish people restarted the work of rebuilding the temple which had been interrupted 14 years earlier. Most of the work seems to be done and you can begin to see what the temple is going to look like when it’s completely done. The reality though, is that it’s not going to be even close to how magnificent King Solomon’s temple had been. It’s going to be a poor reflection of the former temple’s glory. It’s going to be as if they had built a rough shed on the foundation of a former mansion.

The Lord tells Haggai to ask Zerubbabel, Joshua and the people of Israel how many of them remembered King Solomon’s temple. 66 years have passed by since it had been destroyed, so not many of them would have much of a memory of the old temple, but they would have heard the stories of how magnificent the temple had been. Those who did remember the old temple wept aloud, as Ezra the priest writes, because it’s so much less now than it was before. This temple is only a shadow of the great temple, the one known around the world for being so amazing. The Lord asks them, “How does it look to you now? Does it seem to you like nothing?” These questions hurt, they force the people to realize much they’ve lost since the time when they were a strong nation under God.

The returning exiles have less money and access to gifted artists and skilled builders than Solomon did when he built the great temple. The people don’t have the resources like gold, silver, aromatic cedar, or other materials to make this temple as beautiful. It’s a shack compared to the old temple. Can you imagine how depressed the people must be, how sad their hearts are now that they can’t build something special for God? It’s hard to feel good about what you have right now when you had so much more before.

The Lord doesn’t allow them to feel sorry for themselves for long. “But now be strong Zerubbabel, be strong, Joshua, son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land and work. For I am with you. This is what I covenanted with when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.” The Lord takes them way back in their history to when he saved them from slavery in Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land where they are again. The Lord’s calling them to remember that he keeps his promises: promises to bless them so that they will be a blessing to the nations, a promise to be their God and that they will be his people. When people look back, they can look back in one of two ways: either they will see only how things were better back then: the kids were more respectful, you were captain of the hockey team and had lots of hair, you were slimmer and fitter then, the air was cleaner, and life was better. Others look back and they see how blessed they are now and how far they’ve come. They see how life has shaped them into who they are today and they feel gratitude, thankfulness and if they are followers of Jesus, they remember and this increases their faith as they see how God has been with them all the way.

The temple is about giving God honour and glory. Now God tells them, “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 what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory. The silver is mine and the gold is mine. The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house. And in this place I will grant peace.” The Lord’s reminding them of his power in calling himself ‘Lord Almighty,’ a military designation of authority and strength which means ‘Lord of the heavenly armies.’ The Lord tells them to not fear because there is nothing and no-one more powerful than the Lord Almighty on earth or in heaven.

We see God’s power in Jesus Christ who came to earth to take the weight of the world’s sin on himself so that we can be right with God again. God is perfect and cannot accept us the way we are and since we cannot save ourselves, we need someone to be our Messiah. This is what God is getting at here when he talks about how the people are defiled, that “whatever they do and whatever they offer there (the temple) is defiled.” Jesus is both God and human and so is able to take our punishment on himself by going to the cross where, in his death, he fulfils the punishment for sin declared by God in the Garden of Eden, and defeats Satan’s plans to twist God’s creation so out of shape that it can’t be restored. Instead we’re renewed and receive new life in Jesus and are now called to live lives filled with gratitude and praise, and through the good works prepared for us to do by God, win others over to Jesus.

As Lord Almighty, he is going to shake the heavens and the earth and all nations. This is an image of judgement, of holding creation and all people accountable, pointing ahead to the Day of Judgement. The Day of Judgement is also connected to the coming Messiah, this is what the Lord means when he says, “and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory.” You might wonder how people who don’t acknowledge God or Jesus can desire him, especially in a time like ours when so many people are walking away from church and God, and yet everyone knows that the world isn’t the way that it should be, that there so much wrong and evil in our world, and they hope for better things, for some way, for someone who can make things right, to hold those who do wrong accountable, to stand up for justice and right. They are desiring Jesus even if they don’t know it, or want to admit it.

The Lord reminds the people through Haggai that everything is his, including the silver and gold. The glory of the temple doesn’t come from what it’s made of, it comes from the Lord filling the temple with his presence. Even though King Solomon’s temple was an amazing building, its glory came when the Spirit of God came and filled it. When Israel went into exile, the Spirit of God left the temple and followed the people east into Babylon. “My Spirit remains among you,” the Lord tells them, showing that the Lord is with them no matter where they may be. It’s not the people who build glory into it, the Lord’s the one who will fill it with his glory.

Haggai ends with, “Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I am going to shake the heavens and the earth… On that day,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” God is saying that Zerubbabel, a descendant of King David, is a guarantee of the promises God made concerning the new temple. These promises are fulfilled when a later descendant of David, Jesus, enters the temple, bringing the Father’s glory and peace. Jesus’ central focus, as John writes, is “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work,” which is renewing and restoring all things to his Father.

As Michael Williams writes, the apostle Peter tells us God is still building his house and that every person who comes to God through faith in Jesus is like a living stone that God is using to build a spiritual house: “As you come to him, the living Stone… you also, like living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house.” We’ll be reflecting more on this passage in a couple of weeks. The Holy Spirit used someone to bring you to Jesus, and now the Spirit wants you to be that somebody in someone else’s life. Just as God was calling the Israelites to make him their number one priority again, so Jesus calla us today to make him our main priority. If we do, we’ll be blessed. This means looking for the tools and materials that the Holy Spirit places in our lives to build God’s house in Jesus. What changes do you need to make in your life to get active in building God’s house?  Let’s get busy building the house of God, knowing that he fills it with his glory.