Haggai 2:20-23

And again the word of the LORD came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying,

God's promise through Zerubbabel to Israel of safety in the coming commotions.

Verse 20. Again the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month - the 9th month in the second year of Darius (). The same date as Prophecy III ().

Verse 21. Speak to Zerubbabel. Perhaps Zerubbabel had asked as to the convulsions foretold (Haggai 2:6). This is the reply: The Jews had been led to fear that these convulsions would destroy their national existence. Zerubbabel, therefore, as their civil leader and representative, is addressed, not Joshua, their religious leader. Messiah is the antitypical Zerubbabel, their national Representative and King, with whom God the Father makes the covenant wherein they, as identified with Him, are assured of safety in God's electing love (cf. , "I ... will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee"). Verse 21. I will shake the heavens and the earth - (note, Haggai 2:6). There shall be violent political convulsions accompanied with physical prodigies (; ).

Verse 22. And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen. All other world-kingdoms are to be overthrown, to make way for Christ's universal kingdom ().

And I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them. War-chariots are to give place to His reign of peace (; ).

Verse 23. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee - under my protection, and to promote thee and thy people to honour, as I "chose David" thy forefather, "and took him from the sheepfolds ... to feed Jacob (my) people" ().

And will make thee as a signet - (; ). A ring with a seal on it; the legal representative of the owner; generally of precious stones and gold, etc., and much valued. Being worn on the finger, it was an object of constant regard. In all which points of view the theocratic people and their representative, Zerubbabel, the type, and Messiah his descendant, the antitype, and the spiritual Israel, the Church, are regarded by God. The safety of Israel to the end is guaranteed in Messiah, in whom God hath chosen them as His own, "in whom (He) will be glorified" (; ; ; ). So the spiritual Israel is sealed in their covenant-head by His Spirit (; ; ; Ephesians 1:13). All is ascribed, not to the merits of Zerubbabel, but to God's gratuitous choice. Christ is the "signet" on God's hand: always in the Father's presence, ever pleasing in His sight. The signet of an Eastern monarch was the sign of delegated authority; so Christ wields "all power given unto (Him) in heaven and in earth," and hath "all judgment committed" unto Him by the Father (; John 5:22).

Remarks:

(1) Men are too apt to judge of the value of things by the outward appearance, which is called by our Lord a judging after the flesh (). In outward splendour the second temple was inferior, especially in its first beginnings, to the temple of Solomon. But in the truest glory it was far superior to the former temple. For in it Messiah walked, worshipped, and glorified the Father. Jesus, who visited the temple of Zerubbabel, was the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person (). Though the second temple had not what were in the Jews' eyes the glory of the first temple, the Shekinah-cloud, the ark, the sacred fire, the Urim and the Thummim, and the spirit of prophecy, it was honoured with the presence in it of the grand Antitype to all these, "God manifest in the flesh."

(2) This prophecy alone confutes the Jews. For if Messiah has never yet come, as they say, wherein can it be shown that "the glory of the latter house was greater than of the former" (). In all other respects it was inferior to its predecessor, except in that one which outweighed infinitely all the rest, the presence of the incarnate God.

(3) Moreover, the times of the second temple were preeminently times of trouble, first under the Persian kings, then under Antiochus Epiphanes, and finally under the Romans, who at last utterly destroyed the temple. In what sense then can the prophecy be understood, "In this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts" (). To the unbelieving Jews the difficulty is incapable of solution. To the true Christian it is a truth full of unspeakable, experimental comfort, that Christ is "our peace" ().

(4) Yea, more; as it was in the "place" where Haggai spake that Christ first gave "peace through the blood of his cross" () to all believers, so it shall be "in this" same "place" that He, from His throne in Jerusalem, shall hereafter, in manifested glory, "give peace," first to His long-separated and outcast people, and then to all nations. As the second temple began with humble and despised beginnings, but finally had preeminent glory attached to it, so Jesus, who came among us at first in great lowliness, shall at last come in all His glorious majesty. The "shaking" of all earthly kingdoms, as moveable and transitory (Hebrews 12:26), is the necessary preliminary before setting up "the kingdom that cannot be moved" (Haggai 2:6). It is true "the desire of all nations" has already come (), and has given peace with God and with their own consciences to all who believe. These indeed know Him as the only portion they desire, the "altogether lovely." But all nations, and even His own elect nation, do not as yet call Him blessed. The agitations of wars in the political world, accompanied with corresponding commotions and convulsions in the natural world, are, therefore, permitted and ordained by God as about to continue unto, and to multiply especially toward the end, in order that "the distress of nations with perplexity" (Luke 21:25), may create a longing desire throughout the world for the advent of the Prince of Peace, the Great Healer of the woes of humanity.

(5) It is to many a stumblingblock that true Christians often possess now but little of the outward world-glitter of "the silver and the gold" (). But let believers remember, God could give these if He pleased; because they are wholly His. But it is His will, that in this dispensation His people should walk by faith, and not as yet by sight. In due time the outward glories of the Christian temple shall be revealed with transcendent splendour in the city of our God (Revelation 21:10).

(6) Meanwhile let us not be discouraged by the comparatively humble aspect of true Christianity on earth now (). "The Lord of hosts" saith to every fearful believer, "Be strong and work, for I am with you" - unseen, it is true, but realized in quickening, enlightening, comforting, sanctifying, and strengthening power by all my people (). Whatever be our difficulties and discouragements, if the work that we have in hand be the Lord's work, and if the Lord be with us, we have a power on our side which nothing can withstand. God's "covenant" engages to His people that His "Spirit" will "remain with" them to the end. Therefore they have nothing to "fear" and everything to hope ().

(7) Attendance to outward ordinances reaches but a short way; it cannot sanctify so as to render those persons acceptable to God who lack the internal principle of faith and obedience (Haggai 2:12). Nay, those who are unclean before God because of "dead works," thereby render unclean all their services.

(8) From the moment that we unreservedly yield ourselves up unto God we may confidently calculate on His blessing (Haggai 2:15). The path of duty is the path of safety, comfort, and peace in the end. Though we do not see the immediate good fruits of faith and obedience, we can well afford to wait in confident anticipation of them. God's promises are all sure: they are infinitely to be preferred, even in prospect, to the world's best things in possession.

(9) Believers need not fear though great revolutions and upheavals of kingdoms, and even convulsions in the physical world, are impending (Haggai 2:21). For the Lord of hosts hath from everlasting to everlasting "chosen" His people in Christ, the Antitype to Zerubbabel (). He is the "signet" in the Father's hand; and they are sealed in Him as safe forever. They are sealed with His Holy Spirit as the children of God, and heirs of that kingdom before which ere long all earthly kingdoms shall fall. Let us, as believers, rejoice to know, that "all the promises of God in him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God" ().