Haggai Part 6

H. “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts” (v. 8). 1. They need not be concerned about the relative absence of the gold and silver that were part of the first temple’s glory. 1CH 29:1-5, 14-16. 2. This temple would one day be graced by the Messiah Whose salvation and gospel were richer than silver and gold. 1PE 1:18-19; ACT 3:6-11. 3. Christ is greater than the temple (MAT 12:5-6). Compare “in this place” with HAG 2:9. I. Consonant with the greater future glory of the rebuilt temple and Messiah's arrival would be another signal event: the shaking of the heavens and earth. vs. 6-7. 1. There awaits a great shaking of all things at Christ’s second coming. 2PE 3:10; REV 6:12-17. 2. This shaking would occur at Christ's first coming. a. This is concluded by virtue of its connection with God also filling “...THIS house with glory...” (v. 7), i.e., Zerubbabel's rebuilt temple. b. Zerubbabel's temple was filled with glory at Christ's first coming, as seen above. c. Zerubbabel's temple was destroyed by the Romans around 70 A.D. If there is anything rebuilt just prior to Christ's second coming, THAT house could not be THIS house. d. Further, any possible future rebuilt Jewish temple of an O.T. order is not going to be blessed with God's glory, but be consumed by His fiery Haggai 10-12-24 Page 8  judgment since it would be affront to the real temple which is His body resurrected and ascended to the heavens as the true temple (JOH 2:20-21 c/w REV 21:22) anticipated by the gospel church/temple. God's glory remains with the spiritual temple, His church, throughout all ages. It is a glorious church. EPH 3:21; 5:27. 3. Paul cites this text as further evidence that N.T. saints are under weightier responsibility than were O.T. saints under Moses. HEB 12:25-27. a. The Exodists under Moses' earthly mediatorship witnessed God shake the earth when His Old Covenant was initiated. EXO 19:18. b. N.T. saints under Christ's heavenly mediatorship have witnessed God shake the earth AND heaven when His N.T. became of effect, which should even more excite them to righteous conduct. c. This does not mean that there is not a future shaking of heaven and earth to which N.T. saints look with dread and hope. 2PE 3:11-14. d. At issue is HOW the earth and heaven were shaken at Christ's first coming. 4. There was a literal/natural shaking of the earth and heaven at Christ's first coming. MAT 27:45, 51; 28:2. 5. Haggai's prophecy, though, included a shaking of nations/kingdoms (vs. 7, 21-22), indicating the possibility of a figurative shaking. 6. Sometimes, great changes in world order are represented under color of such terms as “shaking of heaven and earth.” a. Babylon's demise was thus described. ISA 13:9-13, 17-19. b. Similarly, Jerusalem's destruction and the end of the O.T. order was signified by a torturous upheaval of creation. LUK 21:24-26. c. We commonly refer to major political changes as big shake-ups. 7. Of interest is the statement in LUK 21:26, “...the POWERS of the heavens shall be shaken.” a. Behind earthly rulers and their kingdoms are spiritual forces animating them. EZE 28:12-14; DAN 10:13; EPH 6:12. b. Christ spoiled those principalities and powers by His death, burial and resurrection. COL 2:15. (1) Christ destroyed “...him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;” (HEB 2:14) and Christ now has “...the keys of hell and death” (REV 1:18). (2) Satan and his angels have been cast out of heaven. REV 12:7-9. (3) All the invisible powers are now under control of the God-man, Christ Jesus. MAT 28:18; COL 1:16-18. c. At the time when Jesus Christ came, the world was in the midst of the Pax Romana under the last of a series of Gentile empires that held political sway. Christ threw a monkey wrench in the works. d. Those empires were devil-worshipping (1CO 10:20) idolatrous, religio-political systems which used occult arts in their government. EST 3:7; ISA 47:12-13; JER 10:1-2; EZE 21:21. 8. The shake-up at Christ's first coming was not just political, it was also of religion/spiritual animations. a. With the going forth of the gospel to the nations, the idols of the Gentiles started to topple. b. The Roman Empire started to face a new challenge from a spiritual system with a greater message and promise, and it eventually began to unravel and Haggai 10-12-24 Page 9  fragment. c. Those who went forth preaching the gospel indeed “...turned the world upside down...” (ACT 17:6). 9. So powerful was the effect of Christ's coming and gospel upon the old Babylonian- style system, that it was forced underground to resurface as a hybrid of paganism and Judaism cloaked in Christian terms and forms exercising increasing religious, political and economic power: Roman Catholicism. 10. One thing remained when Christ shook things up: His kingdom. HEB 12:27-28 c/w DAN 2:44 c/w MAT 16:18 c/w EPH 3:21. 11. There is to be a revival of the pre-Christ religio-political system before the Second Coming but it will ultimately be destroyed by the King of kings. REV 17:8, 14; 20:7-9. 12. Let Matthew Henry's eloquence sum this up (commenting on HAG 2:20-23): “I. Let him expect to hear of great commotions in the nations of the earth, and let them not be a surprise to him; behold, he is told of them before (vs. 21-22): I will shake the heavens and the earth. This he had said before (vs. 6-7), and now says it again to Zerubbabel; let him expect shaking times, universal concussions. The world is like the sea, like the wheel, always in motion, but sometimes in a special manner turbulent. But, Blessed be God, if the earth be shaken, it is to shake the wicked out of it, Job 38:13. In the apocalyptic visions earthquakes bode no ill to the church. Here the heavens and the earth are shaken, that proud oppressors may be broken and brought down: I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. The Chaldean monarchy, which had been the throne of kingdoms a great while, was already overthrown; and the powers that are, and are yet to come, shall in like manner be overthrown; their day will come to fall. 1. Though they be ever so powerful, yet the strength of their kingdoms shall be destroyed. They trust in chariots and horses (Ps.20:7), but their chariots shall be overthrown, and those that ride in them, so that they shall not be able to attack the people of God, whom they persecute, not to escape the judgments of God, which persecute them. 2. Though there appear none likely to be the instruments of their destruction, yet God will bring it about, for they shall be brought down every one by the sword of his brother. This reads the doom of all the enemies of God's church, that will not repent to give him glory; it seems likewise designed as a promise of Christ's victory over the powers of darkness, his overthrow of Satan's throne, that throne of kingdoms, the throne of the god of this world, the taking from him all the armour wherein he trusted and dividing the spoil. And all opposing rule, principality, and power, shall be put down, that the kingdom may be delivered up to God, even the Father.” 13. A divine shaking of government takes place in the heart of God’s elect as Satan is displaced by Jesus Christ and it can be a torturous event. LUK 11:21-22 c/w ACT 2:37; PHIL 2:12. Haggai 10-12-24 Page 10