Haggai 2:5-9 (3)

Please turn to Haggai 2.

Matthew — back three books

The last time we were here...

…we worked our way (somewhat) through verse 5.

The main thing we saw in those verses, was...

…God encouraging the remnant, to:

Be strong

Continue on in their work of rebuilding the Temple.

I’m not going to say a lot more than that right now.

That’s because (as I said before)...

…These are really, really deep verses...

And we need all the time we can get for them.

-We are going to read verses 1-9 for a reminder...

But, we’re only going to expound verses 5-6

Haggai 2:1–9 (ESV)

1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet:

2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say,

3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts,

5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.

6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.

7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts.

8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.

9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’ ”

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Pray

-Let’s BRIEFLY be reminded of the setting of our text:

Less than a month after the rebuilding had continued

Last day of the Feast of Tabernacles (explain significance)

The people are discouraged because of:

The lackluster glory (physical and spiritual) of the temple they were building.

Remember this graphic: (Click)

elaborate

This not only paled in comparison to Solomon’s Temple...

…it barely fits in the same category of the eschatological Temple that they were expecting

It had been foretold (Ezekiel) that the final temple of God (i.e., final dwelling place):

Would be filled with the glory of God forever.

It’s arrival would be accompanied by true holiness among the people.

It would have a faithful priesthood

In its day the people would have righteous civil rulers.

That a river of living water would issue forth from its threshold...

…that would provide life and sustenance to all of creation.

That trees would grow on its banks...

…that would provide food and healing for God’s people.

That the land would be restored as an inheritance...

…Now, to even the sojourner!

The City will be restored, its walls made secure with Towering Gates...

…named after the respective tribes.

And the last thing we read is this:

Ezekiel 48:35 (ESV)

35 . . . And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The Lord Is There.”

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They knew these promises...

And they knew that:

Their circumstances

The temple they were building...

…simply wasn’t what they had been waiting for.

But, God had told them (in verse 4)...

To be strong

Build it anyway...

Because, even though it wouldn’t be the grand and final eschatological temple...

…it was something that:

He had commissioned

He was behind.

At the end of verse 4 He told them:

Haggai 2:4 (ESV)

4 ...Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts,

They were doing what He wanted them to do...

…and He would prosper them for it.

-Now, we read over this (briefly) in verse 5...

But, it deserves a deeper consideration than what we gave it last time.

He said:

Haggai 2:4–5 (ESV)

4 ...Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts,

5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.

Now, if you’ll remember, last time we saw that...

…God had pronounced Ichabod upon the nation.

We had seen the glory of God...

...being carted away from the temple and the city in Ezekiel 10ff.

So, what does this mean in verse 5?

Well, the word “covenant” in verse 5 in the ESV...

…can be a little misleading.

I don’t think He’s necessarily invoking the Mosaic Covenant...

…in order to obligate himself to do something.

I think He’s referring to the thing that...

…set them apart most fundamentally...

…as a distinct and holy people.

The thing that most differentiated them...

…that is the central focus of every covenant!

In the context of the Tabernacle, He said:

Exodus 29:45–46 (ESV)

45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God.

46 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

Later, he told Moses (After the Golden Calf):

Exodus 33:14 (ESV)

14 ...My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

To which Moses replied:

Exodus 33:15–17 (ESV)

15 . . . “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do...”

This was always Israel’s strength:

The presence/work of the Spirit of God in their collective midst!

Every success they had...

...is attributed to His presence/work.

Isaiah 63 provides a great summary:

Isaiah 63:7–14 (ESV)

7 I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

8 For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” And he became their Savior.

9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

10 But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.

11 Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit,

12 who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name,

13 who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble.

14 Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.

Nehemiah adds:

Nehemiah 9:20 (ESV)

20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.

Nehemiah 9:30 (ESV)

30 Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

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And this is where the people in our text are at.

And it doesn’t yet look like the Spirit of Almighty God...

…is working in their midst as He did in the days of their Fathers.

But Haggai is sent to assure them...

...that this is exactly what He’s doing.

He says:

Haggai 2:5 (ESV)

5...My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.

Brethren, this is what makes God’s people, God’s people!

His dwelling in their midst!

-Now, notice that verse 6 begins with a conjunction:

“For”

What that tells us is that He’s continuing on...

…with the same theme.

Haggai 2:6 (ESV)

6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.

Notice that every realm of creation is accounted for in this:

the heavens (sky and/or outer space)

The earth

The sea

The land.

Whatever this shaking is...

…it’s thorough!

E. Ray Clendenen explains the imagery:

The terms used are typical of theophanies, where the Lord is described as appearing on the earth, usually in judgment against His enemies — E. Ray Clendenen

We can see that in passages like Isaiah 13.

Isaiah 13:9–13 (ESV)

9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.

10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.

11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.

This is common apocalyptic imagery for...

…the appearance of God in judgment.

His power and might are such...

…that He shakes loose the strongholds of men...

…like a 300 lb man shaking a ripe blueberry bush...

…whose fruit is desperately trying to cling to it.

Resistance is futile!

If you can’t stand...

You can’t fight!

Now, just for free...

…consider how this imagery factors into...

…the way we should interpret the Olivet Discourse:

Luke 21:25–27 (ESV)

25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,

26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Keil and Delitzsch suggest this about its usage in our text:

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). — K&D Commentary

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-Now, I think that we must let Scripture interpret Scripture here.

So we’re going to look at this passage in Hebrews.

But don’t miss what Keil and Delitzsch are implying:

That the shaking of Mt. Sinai at the establishment of the Mosaic Covenant...

…Was symbolic of the shaking of the whole world.

In other words,

What God would do through and for Israel...

…would change the course of Humanity moving forward.

It would:

Overthrow Nations

Establish Nations

Cause established powers to become impudent.

It would usher in a new order for the known world!

Nothing would ever again be the same...

…after God had given the Law at Sinai!

Keil and Delitzsch are saying...

…that it’s an event of this magnitude...

…that’s being referred to in verse 6!

-Now, let’s look at Hebrews.

For Context, we’ll begin in verse 18:

Hebrews 12:18–21 (ESV)

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest

19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”

21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”

This is a clear reference to the inauguration of the Old Covenant

He tells us...

…this isn’t what you’ve come to, though.

He goes on:

Hebrews 12:22–24 (ESV)

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,

23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

What did Abel’s blood speak?

It cried out to God for vindication!

And it was effective in bringing about God’s judgment on his assailant.

Thus, he warns us:

Hebrews 12:25 (ESV)

25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

Then he says this:

Hebrews 12:26 (ESV)

26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”

And, then he says this:

Hebrews 12:27 (ESV)

27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

We’ll see the author of Hebrews explain...

...exactly what he means in the next verse.

But, first consider this older commentary on verse 6 in Haggai.

I think it helps us to understand both:

The former dispensation, out of which they were soon to pass, and of which the former Temple was the symbol and crown...

...had been announced and prepared by the shaking of Sinai and the other wonders wrought in the realm of nature during the disciplinary experience of their fathers previous to their entrance into the Promised Land.

This second, final dispensation was also to be ushered in by shakings and convulsions.

These, in accordance with the more spiritual character of the new era, were to occur not so much in the physical as in the moral sphere, the former class, however, not to be excluded. — John Peter Lange

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You see,

God was telling them that He was...

…Once again going to shake the earth...

And, that what they were doing was going to...

…contribute to the coming of this great act of Judgment.

And they were being encouraged to...

...labor on with this hope in mind

And while, many of their offspring would be shaken off the tree...

...what remained would be something:

Greater

Grander

More glorious...

…than anything God had hitherto done!

This is what we see back in Hebrews.

Hebrews 12:28–29 (ESV)

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

29 for our God is a consuming fire.

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Now, I truly hope to finish verses 7-9 next time.

But this Temple Motif is all over the Scriptures!

And it is so very important.

But, already we can see that...

…the scope of this prophecy...

…reaches far beyond the time of Haggai.

I’ll leave you with a couple of teasers that connect:

Verse 5 (The promise of the presence)

Verse 6 (The cosmic upheaval wrought by the coming of the Lord to the earth)

Revelation 21:1–3 (ESV)

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

And then on a personal level:

John 14:16–17 (ESV)

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Brethren, You and I have received...

…what was foretold to them...

…because God:

came to the earth...

shook earth and heaven...

…in the Advent of Jesus Christ!

Let’s thank Him for it.