Haggai 2:6

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it [is] a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry [land];

Ver. 6. For thus saith the Lord of hosts] i.e. The three persons in Trinity, as appeareth by the note on the former verse. Howbeit, the author to the Hebrews, Hebrews 12:25,26, applieth the words to Christ; whence observe that Christ is Lord of hosts and God Almighty; even the same second person that is called haddabhar, the Word, in the former verse, is very God. Joh 1:3 cf. Colossians 1:14; Col 1:16 Joh 1:9 cf. Joh 8:12 Joh 1:11 cf. Acts 3:13,15. See those coherencies of sentences, John 9:3,4; John 11:4; John 12:39,40, besides the apostle's argument, Hebrews 1:4. That one Gospel written by St John, who was therefore called the Divine, by an excellency (as afterwards Nazianzen also was), because he doth professedly assert and vindicate the Divinity of Christ (ever strongly impugned by the devil and his agents, those odious apostates and heretics ancient and modern; and no wonder, for it is the rock, Mat 16:18), setting him forth, 1. As co-essential to the Father, his only begotten Son, John 1:14. One with the Father in essence and power, John 10:30; John 10:38; John 14:23 John 14:2. As having the incommunicable names and attributes of God, John 8:58; John 20:28. Eternity, John 1:1; John 17:5, infiniteness, John 3:18, omniscience, John 2:24; John 21:22 John 21:3. As doing the works of God, such as are creation, John 1:3, conservation, John 5:17, miracles, &c. 4. As taking to himself divine worship, John 9:38; John 20:28; John 14:1. This truth men must hold fast as their lives, and be rooted in it; getting strong reasons for what they believe. The second ground wanted depth of earth; the seed was good and the earth was good, but there was not enough of it; therefore the heat of the sun scorched it up. Christ is here called the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of glory, Isa 6:1 cf. John 12:41 James 2:1 .

Yet once, it is a little while, &c.] Adhuc unum pusillum. This little little while, this inch of time, was the better part of 500 years, viz. till Christ came in the flesh, Hebrews 12:26, the Jewish doctors say no less. A long time to us is but a little while to God. A thousand years is but as one day to the Ancient of days. His prophets also, being lifted up in spirit to the consideration of eternity, count and call all times (as indeed they are in comparison) moments, and points of time: Punctum est quod vivimus, et puncto minus, could the poet say. What is that to the infinite? said a certain nobleman of this land to one, discoursing of an incident matter very considerable, but was taken off with this quick interrogation. So say we to ourselves, when under any affliction, we begin to think long of God's coming to deliver us. What is this to eternity of extremity, which yet we have deserved? Tantillum, tantillum, adhuc pusillum. Yet a very little while and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry; as in the interim, the just must live by faith, Hebrews 10:37. God's help seems long, because we are short. We are short-breathed, short-sighted, apt to antedate the promises, in regard of the accomplishment. We also often find it more easy to bear evil than to wait till the promised good be enjoyed. Those believing Hebrews found by experience that the spoiling of their goods exercised their patience; but staying God's leisure for the good things he had promised them required more than ordinary patience, or tarriance Hebrews 10:36. Take we heed of prescribing to the Almighty, of limiting the Holy One of Israel, of setting him a time, with those Bethulians.

And I will shake the heavens] Not the earth only, as at the giving of the law (to purchase reverence to the law-giver), but the heavens also; viz. by the powerful preaching of the gospel, whereby Satan was seen falling from heaven, Luke 10:18, that is, from men's hearts; and the saints set together in heavenly places, or privileges in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:6. For he that hath the Son hath life, 1 John 5:10, he hath heaven beforehand. 1. In pretio. In price. 2. In promisso. On Promise. 3. In primitiis. In the firstfruits. Here, then, the prophet encourageth these builders; telling them that under this second temple, how mean soever it seemed, he would first send Christ (called the desire of all nations, Haggai 2:7, and peace, Hag 2:9 cf. Eph 2:14) to grace it with his presence. Secondly, he would cause the gospel to be preached in a pompous and powerful manner. "I will shake," &c. Shake them, to settle them, not to ruin them, but to refine them, shake their hearts with sense of sin and fear of wrath, that they may truly seek Christ. "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," John 1:17. And the end of this universal shake was to show, saith Chrysostom, that the old law was to be changed into the new, Moses into Messiah, the prophets into evangelists, Judaism and Gentilism into Christianism. When Christ was born we know how Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, Matthew 2:3. What a choir of angels was heard in the air at Bethlehem, and what wondering there was at those things which were told them by the shepherds, Luke 2:18. Eusebius tells of three suns seen in heaven not long before his birth. Orosius tells of many more prodigies. The Psalmist, foretelling our Saviour's coming in the flesh, breaks out into this joyful exclamation; "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad: let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood reioice before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with truth," Psalms 96:11,13; Psalms 98:7,9. This, I know, is by some (but not so properly) understood of Christ's second coming to judgment. And both Augustine and Rupertus construe this text also the same way. But the whole stream of interpreters, old and new, carry it against them; and some of them tell us of various strange and stupendous commotions that occured even according to the letter, in heaven, earth, and sea, about the time of Christ's birth, death, resurrection, and soon after his ascension, when he rode about the world upon his white horse, the apostles and their successors, Psalms 45:4; with a crown upon his head, as King of his Church, and a bow in his hand, the doctrine of the gospel, whereby the people fall under him, "and he went forth conquering, and to conquer," Revelation 6:2 .