God promises eternal hope and security in even the most troubled times through Jesus Christ
Haggai 2:6 – 9
6 “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. 7 I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. 8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. 9 ‘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.”
In the previous section the Lord has anticipated the discouragement that his people would experience because the project of rebuilding the temple would not have led to a visually spectacular building. By the same words he provides us with encouragement in our, often, very unspectacular lives. In the verses before us today he is providing further reassurance that as they look to the future work of the Lord, they can be confident that all is well.
The Lord tells them that in the future he will shake “the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land” and then adds in verse 7, “all the nations.” In Hebrews 12:26 – 29, it is made clear that this shaking referred to here is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to establish his kingdom through his life, death and resurrection. It is therefore a very vivid way of describing the impact of the saving work of Jesus Christ on this world. The Hebrews passage emphasises that Jesus’ Kingdom will not be shaken and will remain while all else will come to ruin.
The Lord, through his prophet, then describes how the temple they were building would in a future time be filled with his glory (verse 7). In the following verse he tells of the latter glory of the temple being greater than the former. What is this all about? Very simply, one day the Lord Jesus, to whom the whole temple structure and activity pointed, would enter it. Any former glory it had was because of some illustrations it gave of him, how much greater the reality.
In the coming of Jesus all would be turned upside down because he came to seek and to save the lost. The ones rescued by Jesus would be those who know their sinfulness and would cry out to him, “Lord, have mercy on me the sinner.” He would have the despised and the rejected flocking to him and seeking peace in the midst of the turmoil of their lives. There can be no greater shaking of the world than that lowly, sinful and rejected people would find peace with God. That is why verse 9 concludes with the words, “In this place I will give peace.”
The other side of this is that the powerful, the self-important and the self-righteous religious ones would be shown as rejecters of God’s provision of the saviour. These ones from Jesus’ time are gone and are lost for eternity. Even the Roman empire is long gone. But those who believe in Jesus are with him in eternal glory. It is sobering to remember the same applies to our age. Because of the shaking of the heavens, earth and nations, the rich, the powerful, the famous and celebrated will lose all and only those who cling to Jesus will remain into eternity.
Head and Heart: Consider where your security lies and make sure it is firmly fixed in Jesus.
Hands: Continue to shake the world by calling people to Jesus.
A Song to listen to: Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
David Johnston
Living Church – Creek Road
