The Temple’s Latter Glory
Notes
Transcript
Text
Text
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.
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.
The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.
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.’ ”
Opening illustration 2010 Baja California Earthquake
April 4th of 2010, there was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Baja California… which Baja California is in Mexico not California… Overall, the casualties from the earthquake were minimal resulting in only 2-4 deaths and a couple hundred injuries. However, what is interesting to me about this earthquake is when it happened.
I was in college at the time. It was a Sunday. It was after church my mom and I had eaten lunch we were sitting on the couch talking and watching TV. When all of a sudden our conversation was interrupted to ask the question “was that an earthquake?” The reason that this date was interesting is that it was Easter Sunday. And while we didn’t attach any extra special significance upon the earthquake we didn’t make any claims about the significance of the date — it lead us to speak about the earthquake that accompanied Jesus resurrection.
God is indeed sovereign over the Earthquake - so he certainly was doing something in that earthquake beyond that which I understand - however, the conversation that resulted was quite similar to what the shaking of the earth communicates about God in the Scriptures.
In several texts God makes himself known in the Bible with the shaking of the earth. We see this at Mt. Sinai in Exodus, as well as the death and resurrection of Christ.
This is a big part of the text for today.
In fact, that’s how the text starts off this morning. But first I want to give a quick recap of last week’s text.
As a quick recap for the things that were in the text from last week, the Lord tells the people to work for he is with them. He reminds them of the past and the former glory of the temple, and then he reminds them of the promise of the covenant that was made at Mt Sinai, and finally he assures them of his precession among them.
However, the last two words of the text that we read last week were the command fear not. I had mentioned how this is a very commonly given command in the scriptures - however, one thing that I did not point out is that this command isn’t merely given as a blanket statement not to be afraid of things. Rather in the instances where we see this command it is frequently partnered with a reason to fear. So in part, we see them being told not to fear because they are going to rebuild the temple. They are told to fear not, and then Haggai continues on to give us the reason for they should not fear… it is because God is about to shake the the heavens and earth, the sea and the dry land. God is going to shake the earth. Earthquakes can be a little scary - especially surpass a 5.0 rating on the richter scale. When I was high school several years before the aforementioned Easter Earthquake - we had a 5.2 earthquake and while all of us in my Southern California High School were used to earthquakes and we still had students diving under desks.
However, his shaking of the earth has a very specific purpose in this text.
Let’s look back at the text for this.
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.
God says once more he will shake the heavens and the earth… That once more should catch our attention - and since the Exodus has been mentioned in the previous verse - that is where we should look. In Ex 19:18 we read that the mountain trembled when the Lord appeared at Sinai.
Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.
Then in verse 7, the Lord again speaks of shaking. This time though he will shake all nations.
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.
God is going to shake the nations so that he might fill the house with treasures of the nations and with glory. In this text we are told that the Lord will provide three things for the people in relation to his temple. These three things are riches, glory, and peace.
Riches
Riches
Take a glance at verse 8 really quickly and see that it mentioned gold and silver. This is connected to verse 7. But there’s something odd about the text here. In verse 7, we read that the treasures of all nations shall come in. But there’s been a bit of a debate on what this text means. Just a few months ago we sang two Christmas hymns that include one understanding of this text “Come Desire of Nations, Bind” as stated in O Come, O Come Emmanuel or “Dear Desire of Every Nation” as sung in Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. This would be a messianic reading of the phrase.
However, there is a non-messianic reading of the phrase. And I would argue that the non-messianic reading is the accurate reading.
Contextually, it seems the naturally reading of this text is that treasures (pl) here points not so much to the messiah but to the silver and gold and the treasures that are store in the temple. This is why the text follows up with the Lord declaring that “the silver is mine and the gold is mine.” Yet the construction itself places emphasis on the Lord God… MINE is the silver, MINE is the gold.
Part of this emphasis of the things within the house of the Lord all belonging to God connects elsewhere to an indictment that is pronounced upon other nations that have stolen gold from the first temple.
For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.
Thus the Lord shaking the nations to provide for the materials to rebuild and to fill the temple.
This connects the idea that the gold and silver are his because he is the one who has shaken the nations. but also because that which is present in the temple belongs to the Lord.
God is telling the people that he is going to shake the nations and provide riches for the temple. They are worried about this temple paling in comparison to the first one but God is going to take care of it.
Glory
Glory
The next thing that the Lord promises to bring the the temple is glory. He states in verse 7 that he will fill this house with glory.
This connects to the riches that are mentioned in verses 7 and 8. But it also connects to their expectations concerning this temple. Solomon’s Temple has been listed by some among the great wonders of the ancient world. Thus it could be easy to see why they would not have high hopes in their recreation of such. Yet the Lord tells them that he will bring the glory.
This seemingly has two meanings. One of which would be the material aspect, which seems to be present in the immediate context here. However, the other meaning would be the glory of God. Even thought the temple was ornamented with gold and silver and cedar paneling the most significant characteristic of the temple was that it was the dwelling place of God.
Thus when the Lord in verse 9 speaks of the latter glory of this house being greater than the former - there are two possible understandings of what is intended. Some in the first century thought that this found its fulfillment in Herod’s Extreme Temple Makeover. Around 20 years before the birth of Christ, Herod the Great devised a plan to improve the second temple. It was an impressive building plan and the work continued until 65AD.
This is why in the gospels - in Mark 13:1, Matthew 24:1, and Luke 21:5 - the disciples are marveling at the temple as they leave.
And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”
Yet Jesus seemingly brushes them off - and tells them that it will not be long before all the stones of this temple are lying on top of each other.
Though some have argued that Herod’s renovation fulfills Haggai’s prophecy - I’ve found many Christians scholars to heavily disagree.
John Calvin’s commentary on this text makes the argument that Herod’s renovations of the temple were actually rather the work of Satan as they drew attention away from Christ. Charles Spurgeon stated that unlike Solomon and Zerubabbel, Herod had no instruction from God to renovate the temple. He did it for his own glory and his own praise. Herod’s loyalties were to Rome as he was half Greek, half Jewish.
Yet in the same period of time that these renovations were occurring a more significant glory was walking around.
This 2nd Temple is the temple where Jesus walked, the temple where Jesus was presented in Luke 2:22-40 - and Simeon upon seeing Jesus declares that the glory of God has returned to the temple, and following that in Luke 2:41-52 it’s the temple where Jesus as a boy remains behind when his parents visit Jerusalem for Passover and in this temple Jesus grows and asks questions and demonstrates incredible understanding, in John 2 we see that this is the temple that Jesus cleansed, it is near this temple that Jesus is crucified - where the temple curtain is rent in two as Jesus breathes his last. And it is at this temple where Jesus shows us that the temple is more than just stones stacked on top of each other - Jesus speaking of his body says that if they tear this temple down, he will build it up again in three days.
Jesus in Matthew 12:6 tells his disciples that something greater than the temple is here. In this context he’s referring to the building.
I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
Thus the latter glory of this temple is caught up with Christ accomplishing the work of our salvation and bringing us peace.
And this this latter glory connects us to the last thing that the Lord promises…
Peace
Peace
When the angels appear in Luke 2 at the birth of Jesus they come declaring peace on earth among those whom God is pleased.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
When Simeon sees the Christ child he says that he can die in peace. But much more important than that as we looked at this past December we know Jesus as our Prince of Peace and it is in the temple of Jesus’ body that he has brought us peace. As Paul writes…
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
The death of Jesus was marked by the shaking of the earth, as Jesus lets out his last breath. And when he raises from the dead the earth shakes again.
The shaking of the earth in Jesus ministry - at his death. Matthew 27:51
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
And his resurrection:
And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
I don’t have time to address it in depth today but Hebrews 12:26-29 quotes our text for this morning - we’ll address it Wednesday night. But in it the writer speaks of the shaking of the earth indicating the passing away of shaken things. In the earthquakes partnering Jesus death and resurrection we see the passing away of the Old Covenant and the ushering in of the New Covenant. The earth shakes as our salvation by grace through faith is accomplished.
And in this we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The Kingdom of God cannot be shaken. And this is a wonderful comfort for us. Even though the first temple and the second temple were destroyed in a terrible wars the Kingdom of God stands unthreatened. Take comfort in that. The writer of Hebrews then proceeds to quote Deuteronomy 4:24 state that God is a consuming fire. Believers in Jesus have nothing to worry about in this life. The most any one can do to you is take your life - but God is a consuming fire - and it is foolish to carelessly walk into a fire.
The greater glory of the this temple is found in Christ Jesus. But even after that Christ has build his church into a temple. The Lord has put his Spirit inside of his saints. What we have in Christ is better than if we had a temple building.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
Believers in Jesus have been built into a temple, whose foundation is Christ Jesus.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.