Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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];

6. saith the Lord of hosts ] The frequent recurrence of this expression, which is found here four times in as many verses, is a marked feature of the prophecies of Haggai and of Malachi, and of some sections of that of Zechariah. It is of the nature of an appeal to the power and resources of Almighty God, either as here to awaken the confidence, or as elsewhere to subdue the contumacy of the Jews. The expression is properly elliptical for “Jehovah (the God) of hosts.” See Appendix, note A.

yet once, it is a little while ] It has been proposed to render this: “Yet one (a) little while, and I will shake,” &c. Luther has, Es ist noch ein Kleines dahin, and Calvin, Adhuc unum modicum hoc. Similarly Maurer and Hengstenberg. But grammatical considerations are in favour of the A. V. and R. V.

yet once ] or, once again. “By the word yet he looks back to the first great shaking of the moral world, when God’s revelation by Moses and to His people broke upon the darkness of the pagan world, to be a monument against heathen error till Christ should come; once looks on and conveys that God would again shake the world, but once only, under the one dispensation of the Gospel, which should endure to the end.” Pusey.

a little while ] The explanation which interprets this to mean little in the sight of God, with whom a thousand years are as one day, is forced and unsatisfactory. “The prophet,” as Hengstenberg points out ( Christol. iii. p. 270, Clark’s Translation), “lays stress upon the brevity of the time in this case, for the purpose of administering consolation. But only what is short in human estimation would be fitted to accomplish this.” Nor is it better to say that the 517 years which were to elapse to the birth of Christ were a little while “in respect to the time which had elapsed from the fall of Adam, upon which God promised the Saviour Christ,” or “in respect to the Christian law, which has now lasted above 1800 years, and the time of the end does not seem yet nigh.” Pusey. 500 years is not a little while in comparison of any known epoch of human history. The true explanation would seem to be that it is not the actual birth of Christ, but the preparation for that event in the “shaking of all nations,” (ver. 7) to which the little while refers. The whole grand future, embracing not only the first but the second coming of Christ and the final consummation of all things, is indeed included in the prophecy. But it was the beginning of the great drama, not its last act, that was then closely at hand. That beginning was the then immediate object of the Church’s hope; in that she was to welcome the promise and the presage of all that should follow. Time alone would unfold the plot. In prophetic prospect coming events were confused and blended, just as in our Lord’s great prophecy were the circumstances of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of the world. But the beginning was near at hand. “This shaking commenced immediately. The axe was already laid at the root of the Persian empire, whose subsequent and visible fall was but the manifestation of a far earlier one, which had been hidden from view.” (Hengstenberg). Our Lord’s use of a similar expression when He says to His disciples, “A little while and ye shall not see me, and again a little while and ye shall see me” (St Joh 16:17), may serve to illustrate its significance here. On His lips the “little while” had a three-fold reference; first to the few days before they should see Him again in His risen body; next to the few weeks before He would come to them in the Pentecostal gift of His Spirit; lastly to the interval, which in the retrospect will seem “a little while,” before His second personal advent.

I will shake the heavens, &c.] That political convulsions are here predicted is clear from the clause in ver. 7, “I will shake all nations;” as well as from the passage, ch. Hag 2:21-22, which clearly refers back to this prediction, and explains the shaking of the heaven and the earth by the words, “I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen,” etc. ver. 22. But there is no reason to exclude physical convulsions also. In the earlier revelation of God on Mount Sinai, to which, as we have seen, there is an allusion here, they bore a prominent part. And when, as the inspired writer to the Hebrews teaches us, this prophecy shall receive its final accomplishment in the “removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain,” the whole material frame of the universe will be convulsed. Heb 12:27, with 2Pe 3:10-12.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6 9. The Prophecy Itself

In accordance with the ancient covenant, as a fresh manifestation of its perpetual virtue and undying life (for “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,” Rom 11:29), God will yet again interfere on behalf of His Church and people. And this interference shall be on a scale of grandeur surpassing even the solemn pomp of Mount Sinai, and shall result in a world-wide fame and accumulated glory to the Temple, such as in the palmiest days of old it had never known.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Yet once, it is a little while – This, the rendering of Paul to the Hebrews, is alone grammatical . Yet once. By the word yet he looks back to the first great shaking of the moral world, when Gods revelation by Moses and to His people broke upon the darkness of the pagan world, to be a monument against pagan error until Christ should come; once looks on, and conveys that God would again shake the world, but once only, under the one dispensation of the Gospel, which should endure to the end.

It is a little while – ^o The 517 years, which were to elapse to the birth of Christ, are called a little time, because to the prophets, ascending in heart to God and the eternity of God, all times, like all things of this world, seem, as they are, only a little thing, yea a mere point; which has neither length nor breadth. So John calls the time of the new law, the last hour 1Jo 2:18, Little children, it is the last hour. It was little also in respect to the time, which had elapsed from the fall of Adam, upon which God promised the Saviour Christ Gen 3:15, little also in respect to the Christian law, which has now lasted above 1,800 years, and the time of the end does not seem yet near.

I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land – It is one universal shaking of all this our world and the heavens over it, of which the prophet speaks. He does not speak only of Luk 21:25 signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars, which might be, and yet the frame of the world itself might remain. It is a shaking, such as would involve the dissolution of this our system, as Paul draws out its meaning; Heb 12:27. This word, once more, signifieth the removing of the things that are shaken, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Prophecy, in its long perspective, uses a continual foreshortening, speaking of things in relation to their eternal meaning and significance, as to that which shall survive, when heaven and earth and even time shall have passed away. It blends together the beginning and the earthly end; the preparation and the result; the commencement of redemption and its completion; our Lords coming in humility and in His Majesty. Scarcely any prophet but exhibits things in their intrinsic relation, of which time is but an accident.

It is the rule, not the exception. The Seed of the woman, who should bruise the serpents head, was promised on the fall: to Abraham, the blessing through his seed; by Moses, the prophet like unto him; to David, an everlasting covenant 2Sa 23:5. Joel unites the out-pouring of the Spirit of God on the Day of Pentecost, and the hatred of the world until the Day of Judgment Joe 2:28-32; Joel 3. Isaiah, Gods judgments on the land and the Day of final judgment Isa. 24, the deliverance from Babylon, and the first coming of Christ Isa. 4066, the glories of the Church, the new heavens and the new earth which shall remain forever, and the unquenched fire and undying worm of the lost Isa 66:22-24, Daniel, the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, of Anti-Christ, and the Resurrection; Dan. 1112. Obadiah, the punishment of Edom and the everlasting kingdom of God; Oba 1:18-21. Zephaniah, the punishment of Judah and the final judgment of the earth . Malachi, our Lords first and second coming Mal 3:1-5, Mal 3:17-18; Mal 4:1-6.

Nay, our Lord Himself so blends together the destruction of Jerusalem and the days of Anti-Christ and the end of the world, that it is difficult to separate them, so as to say what belongs exclusively to either The prophecy is an answer to two distinct questions of the Apostles,

(1) When shall these things (namely, the destruction of the temple) be?

(2) And what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world? Our Lord answers the two questions in one. Some things seem to belong to the first coming, as Mat 24:15-16, the abomination of desolation spoke of by Daniel, and the flight from Mat 24:24 Judea into the mountains. But the exceeding deceivableness is authoritatively interpreted by Paul 2 Thes Mat 5:2-10. of a distant time; and our Lord Himself, having said that all these things, of which the Apostles had inquired, should take place in that generation Mar 13:30 speaks of His absence as of a man taking a far journey Mar 13:3, and says that not the angels in heaven knew that hour, neither the Son Mar 13:32, which precludes the idea, that He had just before declared that the whole would take place in that generation. For this would be to make out, that He declared that the Son knew not the hour of His Coming, which He had just (on this supposition) declared to be in that generation.

So then, here. There was a general shaking upon earth before our Lord came. Empires rose and fell. The Persian fell before Alexanders; Alexanders world-empire was ended by his sudden death in youth; of his four successors, two only continued, and they too fell before the Romans; then were the Roman civil wars, until, under Augustus, the temple of Janus was shut. For it greatly beseemed a work ordered by God, that many kingdoms should be confederated in one empire, and that the universal preaching might find the peoples easily accessible who were held under the rule of one state. In the heavens was the star, which led the wise men, the manifestation of Angels to the shepherds; the preternatural darkness at the Passion; the Ascension into the highest heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit with Act 2:2, a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. God had moved them (heaven and earth) before, when He delivered the people from Egypt, when there was in heaven a column of fire, dry ground amid the waves, a wall in the sea, a path in the waters, in the wilderness there was multiplied a daily harvest of heavenly food (the manna), the rock gushed into fountains of waters. But He moved it afterward also in the Passion of the Lord Jesus, when the heaven was darkened, the sun shrank back, the rocks were rent. the graves opened, the dead were raised, the dragon, conquered in his waters, saw the fishers of men, not only sailing in the sea, but also walking without peril. The dry ground also was moved, when the unfruitful people of the nations began to ripen to a harvest of devotion and faith – so that more were the children of the forsaken, than of her which had a husband, and Isa 35:1. the desert flourished like a lily . He moved earth in that great miracle of the birth from the Virgin: He moved the sea and dry land, when in the islands and in the whole world Christ is preached. So we see all nations moved to the faith.

And yet, whatever preludes of fulfillment there were at our Lords first coming, they were as nothing to the fulfillment which we look for in the second, when Isa 24:19-20 the earth shall be utterly broken down; the earth, clean dissolved; the earth, moved exceedingly; the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a hanging-cot in a vineyard and the transgression thereof is heavy upon it; and it shall fall and not rise again; whereon follows an announcement of the final judgment of men and angels, and the everlasting kingdom of the blessed in the presence of God.

Of that day of the Lord, Peter uses our Lords image, Mat 24:43. that it shall 2Pe 3:10. come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works therein shall be burned up.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Hag 2:6-7

Yet once . . . and I will shake the heavens.

Divine shakings

What are these shakings? They have generally been referred to the establishment of the New Testament dispensation, from the text in Hebrews. This interpretation we cannot receive, because–

1. The designation of the interval before their commencement as yet only a little while leads us to look for a nearer future than five hundred years.

2. The force of the Hiphil participle here is properly to denote a continuance of shakings for an indefinite time.

3. The same phrase in verses 22, 23 obviously refers to something outside of the Messianic kingdom, and not inside of it.

4. The usual meaning of this symbolical act is that of a visitation of vengeance on the enemies of God, and not an unfolding of His dispensations of mercy. And–

5. The future establishment of the Messiahs kingdom would not be as directly comforting to them as the nearer and more closely connected even to which the prophet alluded. This event was the speedy shaking of the social and political systems that were around and above them, before and beneath which they were in such dread as to hesitate about going forward in their work. That this fact would be an encouragement to them is obvious. They trembled before the consolidated power of Persia, and the craft of Samaria that might bring that power upon them again in restraint, if not in vengeance. The prophet assures them that they need not tremble, for in a little time this stupendous fabric would totter, and others be thrown up in its place. As these powers were soon to be prostrated, the people of God need not fear before their enemies, that were so soon to fall before them. This gives the key to all history. God will allow men to rear the loftiest fabrics, as individuals and as nations, but He will shake them down, that they may then seek for some immovable basis on which to rest. (T. V. Moore, D. D.)

The shaking of the nations

They who know that the Spirit of God remains with them, will not fear when God shakes the earth. What will a wise man fear? Nothing but that which would draw him away from God. Least of all would he fear that which is meant to bring him nearer to God. But this is the very purpose for which God shakes the earth, that He may burst the doors of our earthly prison, and the chains which bind us to the earth. This is the end for which God will overthrow a mans health, that he may learn how fleeting a possession bodily health is, and may seek that spiritual health which will abide with him for ever. It was by shaking the earth and the nations that God brought Israel out of Egypt, and established a people upon earth who were to be the shrine of His presence, the tabernacle of His law. It is by the shaking of our hearts and souls that the Son of God is made manifest to us. He shakes our earthly riches that we may be led to desire heavenly riches, which will never make themselves wings and flee away. This is the one great lesson which we may learn from our text, that they whom God shakes, if the Spirit of God remains with them, will not fear; because they know that, through this shaking, the desire of all nations will come to them, and fill their souls with His glory. (Julius C. Hare, M. A.)

The nations shaken, and the desire of all come

Three things are foretold in this remarkable prediction.

1. Great commotions and tribulations in the earth.

2. Wonderful and unexpected revolutions.

3. The glorious and happy issue of all these commotions, in the final triumph of Christ and His Gospel.

He is properly called the desire of all nations, because the whole creation groans for deliverance from guilt, for an interposing Mediator, who can make atonement for sin, satisfy Divine justice, and give peace to a wounded conscience. To Christ, therefore, and to His religion, this prophecy belongs.

I. Text refers to the period when Jesus was manifested in the flesh. To prepare the way for this grand event, we may see the omnipotent Jehovah shaking the heavens, earth, and seas.

II. View text as receiving its accomplishment in our own day.

1. He is shaking many kingdoms by awful judgments and unexpected revolutions. Concerning the shaking of the nations, note three things–

(1) They are from God.

(2) To the nations visited, the judgments of God are in wrath, and correctors of iniquity.

(3) The effect of these visitations will be either unfeigned repentance and reformation, or utter ruin and destruction.

2. Though the shaking of the nations bring deserved calamity on guilty lands, yet the final issue of all will be the wide extent of our glorious Redeemers kingdom, and the universal triumph of His Gospel. These predictions are now being fulfilled. All these present tumults and desolations are connected with events which shall bring peace, and righteousness, and joy to the whole earth. (A. Bonar.)

The nations shaken

We find here two things spoken of–

1. The arrival of Him who is called the desire of all nations: and

2. The introductory circumstances, I will shake all nations. The one of these clauses was meant historically to be introductory and precursory of the other. We have, in this verse, a set of antecedent circumstances, and a given result and fulfilment.

I. Those national convulsions which preceded the advent of Messiah. The expression.. the shaking of the nations, is put to signify other things besides mere national and mere political convulsions, but it clearly includes these. Sometimes it means those mental commotions that over spread the minds of individuals. We all know what is meant by a person being disturbed in thought. That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, etc. Sometimes it means a removal of religious dispensations, as in Heb 12:1-29. Apply to the five centuries which lay between the utterance of this prophecy by Haggai, and its fulfilment in the coming of our Master. What changes were there, both political, mental, and religious, precursive of the Christian dispensation. Give account of the Medo-Persian Empire, of Alexanders conquests, of the military power of Rome. Great thought-leaders arose in this period, and their opinions always bred convulsions. Philosophical schools were always at enmity with one another. Opinions held by some were utterly repudiated by others. As far as intellect was concerned, there was a desperate shaking of the nations. And as to religion, everything seemed to tell that Judaism was fast passing away. It was doubted by its own adherents.

II. The connection of Christs advent with these shakings. One great object of Christ in coming to the world was the establishment of peace. He was to be the Prince of Peace. He designed to establish a reign of peace. All His teachings go to the same point. How is it then, that though eighteen centuries have passed, the empire of peace has not come? The answer is that the world has not accepted the principles of Christianity. It is one thing to say that a step is taken towards the effectuation of an object, and another to say that the object has been effected, because there may be impediments put in the way of the effectuation which, while they hinder the fulfilment, by no means at all nullify the statement that the original intention was to produce that effect. A second object of our Masters coming was, the resolution of all those doubts and misgivings that keep the minds of men in perpetual agitation, If the Master came to resolve doubts, why do doubts still exist? Because men love darkness rather than light. Another object of our Saviours coming was to do away with Judaism. This was to be accomplished by an act of supplantation. When instead of a Jewish priest there came a real priest; when instead of the typical sacrifice there came the real sacrifice; when instead of the prostration of body there came the sanctification of the spirit, the substance of Judaism was reached, and the type of Judaism might pass away. Learn–

1. That though we are living in times of great disturbance, we may take this comfort, as convulsions introduced the first advent, so other convulsions may introduce the second.

2. There may be some whose hearts are disquieted, distressed, disturbed by many anxious spiritual cogitations; and we tell you to cease to be your own master, and let Gods Bible teach you. Make it your comfort, stay, director, instructor. There is a time coming when mystery shall be dispelled, for it is written in the page of Scripture, Then shall I know even as also I am known. (Archibald Boyd, M. A.)

The desire of all nations shall come.

Christ the desire of all nations

As the prophets affirmation was not verified in a material sense, Christian commentators of all schools have generally agreed that it must refer to the actual presence of the Redeemer in the second temple. The title, Desire of all nations, requires some explanation. It is reasonable to suppose that it has some respect to the design of the Father in sending Him into the world. The Jews could not believe that salvation was intended for any but themselves. But this fond conceit was at variance with their own Scriptures. While Christ has not, up to this time, been the actual desire of all of every nation, nor even of all of any one nation, yet very many-of different nations have owned and adored Him as their Lord. A spectator of that scene at Pentecost could scarcely have repressed the feeling, Surely, the desire of all nations has come. He is the only being that has appeared in the world of whom this could be affirmed. Every nation, pagan, Mohammedan, and Christian, has its heroes and sages. Within their respective countries they have received general homage–in some cases, indeed, a world-wide celebrity. But for none of them could it be claimed that he was the desire of all nations in the sense in which this title is challenged for Jesus of Nazareth. Christ is the one paramount desire of those who have scarcely anything else in common. Men who are the poles apart on other topics,–on questions of literature, of politics, of trade, of metaphysics, of Church government,–use the same language when they bow before the mercy-seat, sing the same psalms of praise to the Redeemer, and labour with the same zeal to make Him known to others. Where He is concerned, all their hopes and aspirations coalesce, like needles pointing to the same pole. This, however, seems to apply only to those who have a personal knowledge of Christ as their own Redeemer. Is He, in any wider sense than this, the desire of all nations? He cannot be the conscious desire of nations who have never heard of Him, but He may be, He is, their unconscious desire. He is their desire–

1. Inasmuch as they long for a competent and infallible Teacher. The love of truth is natural to man. There is a latent yearning that is not to be pacified until it finds the truth which God has appointed as its nutriment. Left to their blind guides the nations have lived and died, wandering sadly through the mazes of error. Worn and wearied with perpethal disappointments, humanity has longed for the advent of one who could resolve its doubts, allay its fears, and re-inspire its hopes, by unfolding to it immortal truth.

2. They long for a clearer manifestation of the Deity. Man must have a God. If he cannot have the true God, he will fashion gods for himself. Man has hoped, in some way, to behold God as a sharer of our humanity. This universal yearning is alone met in the mission of Jesus Christ.

3. Christ is the desire of all nations in His redeeming work. Universal is the sense of sin and danger: a feeling of exposure to penalty; the dread of an offended Deity. The needful expiation has been made, once for all. In the Cross of Christ is that which will satisfy even these yearnings–the deepest, the saddest, the most abiding, the most universal known to fallen humanity. Then–

1. No nation can enjoy true and permanent prosperity except by receiving and honouring Him.

2. The cause of missions deserves our support as the great interest of earth. If Christ be the desire of all nations, what is He to us individually? (Henry A. Boardman, D. D.)

The desire of all nations

The ancient Jews regarded this prophecy as relating to the advent of the Messiah. It is remarkable that the prophet should describe the Messiah as the desire of all nations. He foresaw a salvation which Should reach to the end of the earth.

I. The need all nations had of a Redeemer. No one can look abroad into the state of the world, either as it is recorded in history, or reported by travellers of the present day, without seeing with grief and horror their general ignorance of God; their devotion to idolatry; their ignorance of a future state; and their vicious practices, particularly their impurity and cruelty. If we lead you to the morality of the heathen, how dreary, or how disgusting is our report! In these things, in which the nations of the world so greatly needed a Divine instructor, the religion of Jesus was peculiarly calculated to supply their wants; to remove their ignorance, to purify their hearts, to soften their ferocity. With the preaching of the Gospel a change was effected, like that which is wrought by the mightiest powers of the natural world. Both Jews and Gentiles had need of One who should reconcile them to God, and bring them to the knowledge of the truth. That One is found alone in Christ.

II. The expectation of a Redeemer which subsisted previous to Christs appearing. We find everywhere prevailing an idea of the need of a mediator between God and man, either to reveal the will of the former, or to render the prayers and offerings of the latter acceptable. The wisest philosophers confess that the Deity must Himself reveal His will if it is to be known. This idea the Almighty suffered to be promulgated by means of oracles, auguries, divinations. Everywhere is the desire to propitiate the Deity by offerings and sacrifices. As proofs of an actual expectation of this Divine Person, take the testimonies of two Roman historians, Suetonius and Tacitus. Both say that some One coming out of Judea should possess the empire. Some rays of Divine light illuminated even the thickest darkness; some remains of a former promise lived in the minds of the heathen; some Divine impressions showed them their wants, and their inability to supply them; some gracious communications instructed them whither to look for deliverance from ignorance and superstition. These faint gleams were lost in that glorious light which burst upon the earth when the Sun of Righteous ness rose to bring wisdom, and sanctification, and redemption. But they served to guide many a wandering traveller through the thick night which enveloped the Gentile world, and to preserve the doctrine of a Divine providence. How glorious|y did our blessed Lord relieve all doubts, and satisfy all expectations. But the great things which have been revealed kindle in our hearts a hope of future mercies. (T. Bowdler, A. M.)

Christ the desire and glory of His Church

I. The time when our Lord was to come. It is a little while. Yet it proved to be five hundred years. A short period compared with the time the Church had already been kept waiting for the Messiah. It was short in Jehovahs own sight.

II. A solemn circumstance that is to attend the Messiahs coming. I will shake, etc. What is this mighty shaking? The language has been interpreted as pointing out those political convulsions and changes which agitated the world between the uttering of this prophecy and our Lords birth, one great empire giving way to another, and that in its turn yielding to a third. St. Paul applies it, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, to the uprooting and destruction of the whole Mosaic dispensation. We may put another interpretation on this prediction. There may he a further reference in it to those moral and spiritual effects which have ever attended and followed the Gospel in its progress through the world. Wherever it has come, it has come with a shaking. It has startled the world, surprised it and changed it. Let the Gospel find its way into a sinners heart, what a convulsion, what a complete uprooting and change does it often effect there!

III. A description of the Lord Jesus Christ. The desire of all nations.

1. In the sight of God He is desirable for all nations.

2. Some of all nations have desired Him. But we must look forward for a full explanation of this title.

3. All nations will desire this Saviour. Imagine these prophecies fulfilled, let this glorious scene be realised, bring before your minds a holy and rejoicing earth, and then cast your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, its holy and rejoicing King–what would you call Him? Just what the great God, the Lord of hosts, calls Him here, The desire of all nations, the joy of the sons of men, the one great blessing, hope, and comfort of a regenerated world.

IV. The glorious consequence of the promised Redeemers advent. I will fill this house with glory. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. The former house was Solomons. How was this magnificent promise fulfilled? The promise seemed to have no fulfilment. At last an Infant enters that temple, brought thither from a stable and a manger, and borne in a peasants arms. Here in this second temple God Himself was manifest in our mortal flesh. A twofold application–

(1) It shows us wherein consists the chief glory of any Church. In the presence and manifestation within it of the Lord Jesus Christ. A real spiritual presence.

(2) It tells us wherein consists the chief happiness of every really Christian heart. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

Christ the desire of all nations

The Church engages our thoughts both on the first and second advents of our Lord. For we, like them of old, are waiting for the consolation of Israel. We exhibit Messiah as the desire of all nations with respect to both His advents. There are two kinds of predictions in the Holy Writings; the one anticipating a dispensation of grace and mercy, the other speaking of awful and tremendous judgments, seasons of tribulation such as the world had never before witnessed. Though our Lord was the Prince of Peace, yet through human perversity the result of His mission was a sword, tile kindling of the fire of evil passions, the setting of the members of a household one against another. Whatever we expect hereafter, here we look not for the fulfilment of our hopes. Knowing the issue, the perpetual feud between the Church and the world, the weary persecutions by which the faithful have been harassed, how can the bringer-in of such a dispensation be the desire of all nations? Still less, seeing what must be the result of His future manifestation, how can He assume this character as the righteous Judge of an apostate world? The distinction may be thus made. The prophets do not say that when He appears, the desires of all nations shall be satisfied; but that He who is the desire of all nations shall come; He, that is, whom they desire by anticipation. With respect to His first coming, it is certain that, from the Fall downwards, the sons of men have ever looked for some mighty deliverer. However deeply men might err as to the object of faith,–however speculative their notions as to the nature of the:Eternal Godhead and their own nature,–however depraved their ideas how they were to propitiate the Supreme Being,–they could not avoid the conviction that, if they were to be saved at all, it must be by the advent of a Son of God in human form, as the connecting link between the Creator offended, and the creature sinning. Such foreshadowings of the truth, originally impressed upon the human mind, the sacred oracles confirm. The streams of tradition and Scripture unite in one deep channel of expectation. But how did He, in whom these anticipations centred, fulfil them? Not in the way in which the sons of men imagined He would. If, dwelling on the train of miseries which the destroyer has brought upon the earth, and unable to reconcile what they saw around and felt within them with His righteous rule whose offspring they knew themselves to be, they yet had faith to see that He in whose bands their destinies lay, ever brings good out of evil, and that every affliction happens to man as part of a discipline of love, and will one day cease altogether–if such were their thoughts, then their fulfilment in Gods good time was verily assured to them. The proof that Christs kingdom has been set up, is seen in the rescue of men from the bondage of slavery and sin; in the daily, hourly, victories gained over the powers of darkness by those in whose weakness His strength is made perfect.. The same desires which Messiah so graciously met, so far as our necessary trial admits, at His first advent, will receive their full and complete satisfaction only at His second coming. One point more. It is to the temple of the Lord that the desire of all nations shall come: it is there that He shall take up His abode. The words of Haggai end Malachi find their primary accomplishment in the presentation of the infant Jesus. But the true temple is our humanity. We know that He is with us, whether we assemble ourselves together to worship and adore Him, to pour out the plaints of our hearts in holy litanies, to praise Him in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, or whether we bend our knees in the silence and privacy of our closets. Let me ask you, then, have you such desires as the Lord at His next coming will be likely to satisfy? Ye have seen what they are. They are such as earth, and the things of earth, cannot fill (G. Huntington, M. A.)

The desire of all nations

This is one of the most difficult, yet most interesting texts of the Old Testament. Many critics would rob the passage of its Messianic element, and degrade the glory of the temple into material gifts and privileges. They assert that the translation is not correct.

1. The desire of all nations should be the desirable things of all nations, as the LXX . The prophet describes, say they, not the coming of a person, but the contributions made to the rebuilding of the second temple (Hag 2:8; Isa 60:5), the forces of the Gentiles (the wealth of the nations) will come to Thee, i.e, be brought to Jerusalem. The Hebrew word Khemdath (from Khamad, to wish or desire) signifies wish or desire (2Ch 21:20), and as applied to persons means the best, the noblest, and most precious. A man of desires, i.e, as the margin, one desired or desirable (Dan 9:23; Dan 10:3; Dan 01:11). He is altogether lovely (Son 5:16). In Hebrews the same word as here is used, all desires, or object of desires. But if the term refers to things, the glory of the second temple could not excel the glory of the first, for it wanted many treasures which the first contained (cf. Ezr 3:12)

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2. It is objected that a singular noun is followed by a plural verb shall come; hence the text should be altered and amended by ancient versions. But if we have any right at all to alter, have we not as much right to change the verb in number as the noun? The Vulgate agrees with the Eng. Ver., desideratus cunctis gentibus. Why not take the word as a collective noun, and understand the Messiah as concentrating all excellences in His person, in whom the desires of all nations find their centre and satisfaction? This title seems to suit prophecy concerning Him (Gen 49:10); and Christ was called by the Jews the hope of Israel, the blessing of Abraham to the Gentiles (1Ti 1:1; Tit 2:3; Act 28:20; Act 26:7-8; Gal 3:14). It is not likely that the gifts of proselytes and worshippers, contributions from heathen princes, and the devotion of surrounding countries, would be esteemed by Jews greater glory than the magnificence of Solomons temple; and is it not unreasonable to think that the prophet would direct men to material treasures as constituting the greater glory? In what can this august prediction find its fulfilment if not in the Saviour of the world, who alone could give the peace mentioned in verse 9? If we carefully examine its words and catch its drift, the difficulties may not all be cleared away; but this sense seems to be furnished by collateral evidence, to agree with the context, and is in harmony with the spirit of the prophet, and with the exordium of his prophecy. The desire of all nations we believe to be the Saviour of the world, whom the Magi from the East and the Greeks from the West desired to see. Moral and physical changes prepared for His coming. The greater glory was exhibited in the presentation, teaching, and personal ministry of Jesus. The nearness of the time appears to oppose this view. Yet once, it is a little while, or yet a little while, lit., one little, only a brief space. But with the Lord a thousand years are as one day. The Divine mode of reckoning is not like our own. We are to look beyond the first to the second temple–from the present to the future–from the beginning to the end of these grand events. Sacrifices were abolished, the temple ritual was completed, and peace was given in the doctrine, and by the death of Christ. Hence, Gods Spirit remains with His people (verse 5). Wherever Jesus dwells, He imparts a glory surpassing the splendour of the Shekinah and the glory of Solomons temple. He can transform the character and beautify the soul. We need Him. Shakings within must prepare for His reception. He has been once, and He will come a second time. Do we desire Him? Have we found Him? May Christ dwell in our hearts the hope of glory! (James Wolfendale.)

The moral progress of the world

I. It requires great social revolutions amongst mankind. 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. Revolutions in society seem to me essential to the moral progress of the race. There must be revolutions in theories and practices in relation to governments, markets, temples, churches. How much there is to be shaken in the heaven and earth of Christendom before the cause of true moral progress can advance! May we not hope that all the revolutions that are constantly occurring in governments and nations are only the removal of obstructions in the moral march of humanity?

II. It involves the satisfaction of the moral cravings of mankind. The desire of all nations shall come. The moral craving of humanity is satisfied in Christ, and in Christ only.

1. Mans deep desire is reconciliation to his Creator.

2. Mans deep desire is to have inner harmony of soul. Christ does this.

3. To have brotherly unity with the race. Moral socialism is what all nations crave for. Christ does this. He breaks down the middle wall of partition. He unites all men together by uniting all men to God.

III. It ensures the highest manifestations of God to mankind. I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord.

1. God will be recognised as the universal proprietor. Silver is Mine, and gold is Mine, etc.

2. God will be recognised as the universal peace giver. I will give peace, saith the Lord of hosts. (Homilist.)

Christ the worlds desire

The desire for a revelation of God is a desire of all nations. Men have never been able to rest satisfied with the bare knowledge or assurance that God is, they have ever yearned for some conception of what God is. What are all the gods of the heathen but human answers to the question, What is God? That question has, as yet, found no true answer. There is still a desire as deep as mans need, as universal as humanity itself, to know what God is, to see a revelation of the Deity. It is fulfilled in Christ. His mission is to satisfy the desire of all nations to see God. Let us take our place at the feet of the God revealing Christ. The desire to be reconciled to God is a universal longing in the heart of man. In Christ is the fulfilment of this desire. In all its stages, here and in heaven, we see in Christ reconciliation between man and God, so that, as the way to the Father, He satisfies the desire of all nations. To all men, conscious of these restless longings and desires, Christs invitation is, Come unto Me, and I will give you rest. (Alex. Marshall, M. A.)

The desire of nations

How was this prophecy fulfilled? The second temple was never equal to the first in outward appearance. How, then, could the glory of the second temple exceed that of the first? God incarnate, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, stood in the second temple, and that made its glory greater. The text foretells the coming of Christ, and says that coming should be preceded by great commotions. How truly this prophecy was fulfilled in Christ those who know the history of the period before His coming will understand. It would seem as if neither civil nor religious benefits could ever be bestowed upon our world except as preceded by such commotions. Whether it is that men become so rooted down in old prejudices in favour of existing evils, that nothing short of bloodshed and evolution will tear them up, or whether God thus punishes old errors, and by His chastening produces a reformation, certain it is, that civil liberty and religious progress have usually dated their most important epochs from seasons of war and political disturbance. So let us regard the present crisis. Let our eye be directed upward to Him who rides upon the storm, and our prayer to Him be, that this, and every other which passes over our globe, may purify more and more, until earth shall have the very atmosphere of heaven. Scripture teaches that the millennial day is to be preceded by a great shaking of the nations. The text has an individual application to ourselves. Christ is, or ought to be, the desire of every heart. Just as God shakes the nations before the desire of nations comes, so does He arouse sinners before Christ can enter into their hearts. (W. H. Lewis, D. D.)

The desire of all nations

The text foretold a strange phenomenon. It declared that the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity would be seen among sinful men.

I. Desire, as referring to the expectation of the whole human family. It is a fact deserving attention, that among the nations there has ever existed a widespread, if not universal expectation of a glorious Person, to be the renovator of mankind, and to impress a new character on the spirit, habits, and morals of the earth. The expectation was not confined to the Jews.

II. Desire, as referring to the wants of the whole human family. Wherever a human being is found, there will be found a conscience, a moral sense. Let men seek by repentance to atone for guilt, it is in vain. Everywhere the imploring cry is heard for some medium, some mediator between God and man. To the want produced by guilt, add that created by the corruption which sin hath shed through our nature.

III. Desire, as referring to the happiness of the whole human family. Jesus alone can confer true happiness; because the mind of man can rejoice only in truth, and Christ is the truth; because the heart of man can only be satisfied with objects worthy of it; and because God is the life of the soul, and Christ alone reveals this Being, and reinstates us in His favour and love. (R. Fuller, D. D.)

Christ the desire of all nations

I. Why christ may justly be called the Desire of all nations.

1. Because of the general expectation that prevailed in the world previously to His coming.

2. Because all mankind required such a Saviour as He is, whether they knew Him or not.

3. Because the Lord Jesus is so attractive in Himself, that all would actually desire Him if they knew Him.

4. Because many, in all nations, have actually desired Him.

5. Because ultimately all the families of the earth shall be blessed in Him.

II. How did Christs presence render the second temple more glorious than the first? In the second temple Jesus displayed the condescension, wisdom, power, and glory of the Deity, in such a manner as far more than made up for its want of external magnificence or internal memorials. The former temple had seen grand men, but now a sinless man. There is yet another temple which is honoured with the presence of Christ. Christians them selves are a building, fitly framed together, and growing unto a holy temple in the Lord. There is yet another temple which is filled with the same glory, n the temple which is above, and in which believers serve God day and night. (J. F. Osborne.)

The desire of all nations

Here was a distinct prophecy of the Saviours coming, and it can be appropriately referred to Him alone. That such a Divine personage was looked for by the Jews is seen in the uniform testimony of their prophets. He was the desire of all nations, because He only could bestow those precious blessings which the world needed. Without Christ human nature was guilty, polluted, wretched, lost. He was to be the regenerator of that nature; the author of its deliverance, its happiness, and its eternal rest. The Lord Jesus was, emphatically, The desire of all nations, because all nations shall one day be made happy in Him. His blessed reign is to be that of righteousness and peace, and the song of universal joy which shall swell forth at last in harmony with harps of gold, will be, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. For four thousand years the accom plishment of the prophecy had been looked for, and at last, in the fulness of time, the long-expected Messiah came. He appeared–

1. At the very period marked out for His birth.

2. In the very manner which had been foretold.

3. He came for the performance of the very work which had been before marked out for Him. Certain remarkable events should distinguish the Messiahs coming.

(1) All nations were to be shaken.

(2) The Jewish temple should be filled with His glory.

In several important particulars the second temple was far inferior to the first. It was not in riches, nor in outward splendour that the superiority of the second temple would consist, but in the personal presence of the Divine Redeemer. He was the infallible oracle, making known Gods will: the perfect sacrifice for sin, faintly shadowed forth by the mercy-seat of the ark; the true fire, to rekindle the expiring flame in the perishing soul. In that second temple the Prince of Peace appeared, making peace between God and man, and pro claiming the Gospel of peace, whose provisions of mercy are freely offered to all. (John N. Norton, D. D.)

The advent of the Lord ushered in amidst the shaking of the nations

Though heaven be Gods throne, and earth His footstool, and all space His temple, yet, in condescension to human weakness, He who fills immensity deigns to manifest Himself in a temple built by human hands.

I. A great Person, the desire of all nations, shall come. There was no human probability that this part of the prophecy would be fulfilled. Who is the desired object It can be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Christ may literally be said to be the desire of all nations, inasmuch as He was the object of their earnest expectation: because to all He was and is most desirable. That the promise of His coming to the temple was fulfilled, see the records of our Lords visits to the temple, as given in the Gospels.

II. The preparation for Christs coming. I will shake all nations. God bids us look for the precursors of His Son in the shakings of nations. This was prophetical, and has been exactly fulfilled. When God is about to introduce any great improvement into His Church, any era of light and enlargement, He generally precedes it by one of trouble and commotion. This often removes serious obstacles to the establishment and welfare of the Redeemers Church.

III. The consequences of the coming of the desire of all nations. I will fill this house with glory. This is prophetical. Any one who had seen the temple of Solomon, would hesitate in believing that anything could surpass its glory. Christ now comes to His Church in remarkable dispensations of providence. As part of the Church visible, we have a great deal to do for Christ, in endeavouring, both at home and abroad, to prepare the temple for the advent of the Lord. (J. G. Lorimer.)

Christmas-day sermon

This text is a prophecy and prediction of our Saviours incarnation. The Jews indeed pervert this text. We apprehend it as a prophetical prediction of that great benefit and mystery of our religion that the Christian Church doth this day celebrate.

I. What occasions the prophet now to mention our Saviour, and foretell His nativity? The mentioning of Christs incarnation comes in without any straining or impertinent digression. The prophet finds the people in a low condition, and the main consolation he ministers to them is this gracious assurance that the Messias was ere long to be born, and to come among them. This promise of Christ had a threefold virtue in it that made it seasonable in the time of distress. It sweetened their sorrow in their present affliction. It revived their hope of a full restoration. It prevents and removes all doubts and suspicions that their fear may forecast against their deliverance. Shall their temple be built again out of so great ruins? There may be doubts whether such a restoration can be possible, and whether God can be so good as to accomplish it.

II. What is the nature, condition, and substance of this promise? Conceive the words as a lively description of our Saviours coming.

1. Here is a solemn preparation for it. I will shake all nations. The times before Christ were troublesome times; nation dashing against nation, and all subdued by the Roman Empire.

2. There was a stirring up of the nations to the expectation, and looking for, of the Messiah.

3. This Shaking foretells a shaking of all things unto a great alteration. The coming of Christ wrought a great change.

(1) In statu return.

(2) In moribus dominum.

(3) In mode rituum.

4. This shaking is a powerful drawing of men to a Christian conversion. The second subject to consider is the gracious performance of this blessed promise. The desire of all nations shall come. Christ is the desire of all things in heaven and earth, and His incarnation that great work that all things looked for.

1. He was the delight and joy of His Father.

2. He was the desire of the angels.

3. He was the desire and longing of all creation.

4. The desire of the patriarchs.

5. The desire of the nations.

Desire implies longing and wishing; attaining and possessing; enjoyment and fruition. This is not a single promise, but a promise pregnant, it includes and implies other promises with it. Here is a door set open for the Gentiles: it concerns us nearly I it is the tenure we hold by. All nations pitched upon one desire; all expect the same common salvation. Christs Church shall be gathered out of all nations. Desire fulfilled and accomplished turns to joy, and that is the happy condition of the Christian Church. (Geo. Stradling, S. T. P.)

The presentation of Christ in the temple

Regard Christ as satisfying the craving of mankind for a perfect ideal of goodness.

I. Such a yearning universal. Man made to look upward. Distinguished from lower animals by capacity for indefinite advance.

1. For this advance an ideal is necessary, up toward which men may struggle. Intense admiration is necessary to our highest perfection. Nothing is so ennobling as looking up.

2. The absence of this upward tendency is a sure precursor of moral ruin. Too common now, especially among young men. Thought fine to crush down all admiration; to carp and sneer at goodness. This lie against mans instincts terribly revenges itself.

II. The power of this instinct proved. By the reverence felt by all nations for their legislators, philosophers, generals.

1. The abiding power over the human mind of Solon and Lycurgus, Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed, shows the preparedness of the human heart to welcome One whose moral standard is higher than its own. The secret of this influence is that each manifested some features of the desire of all nations, some rays of the light that lighteneth every man, some fragments of the truth that all are yearning after.

2. Show in the passionate devotion of soldiers for their generals.

III. But all these come short of the true devotion to the one perfect ideal.

1. Napoleons estimate of the superiority of the influence of Christ.

2. Secret of this universal power–the Incarnation. The desire of all nations must be at once man and God. Nothing short of perfection of sympathy and perfection of holiness will satisfy mans demand. In Jesus Christ, the second Adam; the Lord from heaven, etc., we see One whom we can love, adore, and imitate. The faultless pattern is set before us that we may copy it. In Christ, our brother-man, we see what God is, and by His Spirits help we may strive to copy Him. (Edmund Venables, M. A.)

Christ the hope of the world

The words of the original do not refer at all to Messiah, but to the glory of the second temple, which was then being erected and into which it is foretold the riches of the Gentiles should be brought. The words may, however, be used as the motto of a sermon. Can the words, the Desire of all nations, be justifiably employed in regard to our Lord? None of the names of Christ is more appropriate. The Messiah has always been the Desire of all nations. More or less vaguely a Christ was universally hoped for and expected. How noble a conception we obtain of the relation between an universal Saviour and universal need!

I. Christ is the worlds grand ideal, for whom it waited, and in whom it hoped. It is a historical fact that all nations have desired to see such a person as our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice three ideas in which this desire to reconcile man to God became embodied.

1. There grew up the doctrine, or tradition, asserting the union of God and man in one person. The doctrine of the Incarnation is not peculiar to Christianity.

2. The belief that there would come a time of familiarity between God and man.

3. That there would come, or had come, a perfect God-man to better the condition of the human race in this world, and to teach them about the next. Whole races have believed that certain men were heaven-sent prophets, Divine teachers. Heathen records show that birth from a pure virgin has been attributed to several of these founders of religion. This is related both of Buddha and of Zoroaster. The story of Osiris is even more remarkable. He is represented as visiting the earth, suffering and dying, and rising again to become judge of quick and dead.

II. Christ is fitly spoken of as the Desire of all nations, because His work is such as men hoped to see performed.

1. The world hoped that One would come who should establish justice, peace, and truth in the earth. It was such a moral kingdom that Jesus came to found.

2. The world was craving deliverance from powers of evil to which they felt themselves to be in bondage.

3. Men longed for some means of securing pardon of sin. Consider a summary of the theory of sacrifice among the heathen, and see how it points, in company with the Mosaic system, to the Lamb of Calvary.

(1) In this act they symbolically offered up themselves.

(2) It was necessary that the life of the victim should be taken, and the blood must be shed, for the blood is the life. Life for life is the first principle of the theory of sacrifice.

(3) The victim must be faultless when brought to the altar.

(4) More noteworthy still is the fact that sacrifice meant the giving up of that which was valued and beloved. These views with regard to sacrifice have prevailed almost universally. The faultless and treasured offering was to appease the wrath of heaven. It scarcely needs that I remind you how precisely our blessed Lord is the embodiment of this phase of the worlds faith.

4. The world longed to see harmony and peace restored in place of the discords of human life, and in place of apparent incongruities in the natural world. Men saw so much around them that was problematical. Human life was so strange a puzzle. There shall come, wrote a Persian prophet, a righteous King, whose reign shall be universal. At His advent, poison and poisonous weeds and ravenous beasts shall be expelled from the earth, tie shall make streams break forth in the desert, and there shall be no more a hot simoom. The bodies of men shall be unsubstantial, and shall cast no shadows. They shall need no food to sustain their life. That King shall cast out for ever poverty, sickness, old age, and death. What but the work of our King can fulfil such aspirations? Some argue against the triumph of Christianity, But Christ shall surely triumph; not one tittle of prophecy shall pass till all be fulfilled. But not as we expect may it come about. Gods way of governing the world differs very widely from our very rational-looking theories of how it ought to be done. (Edwin Dukes.)

Christ suited to all nations

If you want to know what it is that makes the living centre of Christianity, go and ask a missionary what it is that he finds it best to tell people that gather round him. Is it not the one story–the universality of sin and the redeeming Christ? Wherefore we say with confidence, and I wish it were deeper in the hearts of all of us, that Christianity–not all the minutiae of reticulations of the net in which we carry it, but the treasure which we carry in the net–that our Christianity is the only religion on the face of the earth that has got stamped upon it universality. Mohammedanism bears the stamp of Mahommed, and dissolves before Western civilisation. It is needless to ask whether Buddhism or Brahmanism can live beyond certain degrees of latitude and longitude, or outside certain stages of human thought and progress. They are all like the vegetation of the countries in which they had their origin. You cannot transplant palm trees and bamboos into our northern latitudes. But the seed which the great Sower came to scatter is like the bread-corn, an exotic nowhere, and yet an exotic everywhere, the bread of God that came down from heaven. All these other religions are like water that is strongly impregnated with the salts or the mineral matters which it has dissolved out of the strata through which it rises; but the river of the Water of Life that proceedeth from the throne of God and of the Lamb has no taste of earthly elements in it, and in spite of all the presumptuous crowing of some whose wish is father to the thought, it will flow on till it covers the earth, and every thing shall live whithersoever the river cometh. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Christ expected

1. There was spread over the whole of creation a universal expectation of some One called in this place the Desire of nations. Three great wants were pressing upon the minds of men, and these wants became fulfilled in the advent of our Master.

1. A distinct knowledge of the true God.

2. Answer to the question, How can man be just with God?

3. Light on the mystery of the future world.

Put these wants together–the true nature of God; the true nature of an expiation; and a true knowledge of immortality, and you see the void, or vacuum, in the human soul.

2. How far was this threefold want met by the Lord Jesus Christ in His advent? Outside of Jesus Christ no true and adequate knowledge of God can be possessed. When Jesus Christ came to the world as Mediator between God and man, Be fulfilled all the required conditions of expiation. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus gives the satisfying light on the mystery of immortality. Christ thus met the worlds needs, and we may say, the Desire of all nations has come. (Archibald Boyd, M. A.)

And I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.–

The glory of the presence of Christ

The glory here spoken of was not any external splendour, pomp, and beauty, for in this respect the second temple fell vastly short of Solomons. It must therefore refer to the presence of Christ, His personal appearance again and again at the temple; which was a greater glory to it than any external ornaments could possibly be. It was not, however, the mere bodily presence of Christ, but the heavenly doctrine which He preached, and the miracles which He wrought there; the pains He took to rescue the Divine law from the corruptions of the Jewish teachers, and especially the spiritual blessings which He so freely offered to all who were willing to receive them. It was, in one word, the manifestation of the goodwill and mercy of God made by Him, and the influence of His Spirit, which accompanied His preaching and miracles, to turn men from darkness to light, and bring them to repentance, faith, and holy obedience. Infer, that the brightest ornament and truest glory of any place of worship is the spiritual presence of Christ in it; or, the influences of His Spirit, accompanying the means of grace, to make them effectual for the edification and comfort of the souls of men. The thing to be anxious about, as a Christian Church, is, that we may have the special and gracious presence of Christ with us, to fill His house with His glory. The evidences of this presence are–regular and careful attendance upon all the ordinances and institutions of Christ; serious and devout behaviour; worship of the Father in spirit and in truth; singing Gods praises with understanding and lively devotion; fixing the attention and engaging the affections with Divine truth. Particularly when, at the Lords table, the thoughts are fixed upon the sufferings and love of Christ, and grateful affections are excited towards Him; and when their souls are filled with love of the brethren. (Job Orton.)

Divine agency

1. Divine agency in the affairs of the world. I.

2. Divine order. I will shake. Disturbance precedes repose; war, peace; death, life. This law is seen in the operations of nature, in the government of nations, in individual life, and in the Church of God. The prophecy of the text was fulfilled. The wars of Alexander the Great, of his successors, and of Rome, shook the world. Political, social, and religious convulsions prepared the way for the Desire of all nations.

3. Christs advent. When He appeared the temple of Janus was closed. The world, weary and worn, was unconsciously longing for His presence. The cry of all religions was reconciliation with God. For this, temples were erected, altars built, priests maintained, sacrifices offered. Christ alone is the Reconciler, Mediator, Prince of Peace.

4. Christ the glory of the temple. The old men wept at the inferiority of the second temple. But of it God said, I will fill this house with glory. The Jews say five signs of Divine glory were in the first temple, which were wanting in the second,–Urim and Thummim. Ark of covenant. Fire upon the altar. The Shechinah. And the spirit of prophecy. But in Christ all these signs of the Divine glory were united and signally manifested. Thus by His coming to the second temple Haggais prophecy was fulfilled. And He is still coming m like manner to hearts, to churches, and to nations; but He will come yet more gloriously. All changes, revolutions, and convulsions are preparing the way for His triumphal chariot. (The Study.)

The presence of the Messias, the glory of the second temple

The modern Jews will by no means have this text to be understood of the Messias. The ancient Jews did so understand it. The Messias is He whom all nations had reason to desire, because of those great blessings and benefits which He was to bring to the world. Show how the several parts of this prediction agree to our blessed Saviour, and to no other.

I. There should be great changes and commotions in the world before His coming. This was fulfilled in a most remarkable manner between the time of this prophecy and the coming of our blessed Saviour. In those four hundred years happened greater commotions, and much more considerable revolutions, than in above two thousand years before, and in almost two thousand since.

II. The world should be in a general expectation of Messias at the time of his coming. The Jews were in general expectation. Their tradition was, that Messias would appear at the end of the second two thousand years. Some Jewish doctors determined that the Messias would come within fifty years of their time. And Suctonius and Tacitus voice the heathen expectation.

III. He who is foretold, was to come during the continuance of the second temple. Not long after Christs death this second temple was destroyed to the ground. Then it could have been no other than Jesus who filled this second temple with glory.

IV. The coming of Messias was to be the last dispensation of God for the salvation of men. Once more implies once more only. The inference may be thus expressed, See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. What could God have done more for us than He hath done? (J. Tillotson, D. D.)

The glory of the second temple

I. Wherein the glory of the former house consisted. Properly speaking, there were three temples in Jerusalem. From Joshua to Solomon there was no permanent edifice. The tabernacle was fitted to the needs of a wandering people. Nearly five hundred years passed before the project of building a permanent house for worship could be carried out. Solomons temple is familiar. It was destroyed after an existence of over four hundred years. The second temple was founded by Ezra. The third was built by the munificence of Herod. It was strictly no new house, only a reparation of the old. Notice the magnificence of the first temple with regard to its materials. The whole world was laid under contribution, so to speak, for the erection of that magnificent edifice. Notice the contents of this temple. There were three of surpassing magnificence–the ark, the altar, and the light. Each of these was symbolical of a deeper and more recondite truth. Consider its dedication by the coming to it of the sign of Gods presence–the cloud symbol. One other fact added to the magnificence of the temple. It was the spot where God chose to hold communion with man.

II. Wherein did the greater glory of the latter house consist? Here we find there is a passing from the material to the spiritual. Things symbolical and things material were in no respect to constitute the glory that belonged to the second temple. The peculiar glory of the second temple consisted in this- the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The material glory, the splendour of the former house, was all eclipsed in this consideration, that to the second temple came God manifest in the flesh. It was in the second temple that the worlds peace was made. In the first temple the voice of prophecy was heard, but in the second it was altogether silent. At last the voice of prophecy came. The Master said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. Jesus Christ, in uttering His prophecies in that temple, made that temple still more glorious by the character of those utterances. His word came with power. The subject teaches the manifest glory of the spiritual over the material. (Archibald Boyd, M. A.)

The glory of Gods house

The glory of Israel consisted in Gods visibly dwelling in their midst. The rabbis remind us that the second temple was inferior to the first in five essential particulars:–

1. The original ark of the covenant, containing the two tables of Sinai, and the Mercy-seat, were lost.

2. The Shechinah, or Divine presence, appeared no more.

3. The Urim and Thummim, connected with the miraculous breastplate of Aaron, had vanished.

4. The holy fire, which God Himself had kindled upon the altar, and which was ever kept burning, and from whence the sacrifices were to be ignited, was extinguished for ever.

5. The Holy Spirit of prophecy spake no longer as in times past; it was silent for four hundred yeasts after Malachis removal. These causes conspired to damp the fervour of the people in the work of restoration. Haggai was bidden to acknowledge the visible inferiority of the second temple; but he was to say that the deficiencies were only apparent. The true essentials of worship, the veritable consciousness of Gods faithful guardianship, the unseen consolations of His Spirit, should more than compensate for the absence of the former tokens of His proximity. And to this, at present, unpretending shrine the Lord of hosts Himself would come; the Prince of peace should adorn it with His own life-giving presence. The dearest aspiration of all nations–for that is the meaning of the Hebrew word translated the Desire of all nations–should be realised in the person of Jesus the Messiah. Here, then, was true glory; here was substantial consolation! Here was consolation amply sufficient to counterbalance the absence, not only of material splendour, but also of the gorgeous symbolism, the departed externals of God dwelling in their midst. The consolation offered by Haggai consisted in the assurance that the temple which they were rebuilding should witness the arrival of the promised Saviour of the world, even of Him who should gather together in one all the children of God that were scattered abroad. Salvation, and not the symbols and types thereof, is the one thing needful. (Joseph B. McCaul.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 6. Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens] When the law was given on Mount Sinai, there was an earthquake that shook the whole mountain, Ex 19:18. “The political or religious revolutions which were to be effected in the world, or both, are here,” says Abp. Newcome, “referred to; compare Ex 2:21-22; Mt 24:29; Heb 12:26-28. The political ones began in the overthrow of the Persian monarchy by Alexander, within two centuries after this prediction; and if the Messiah’s kingdom be meant, which is my opinion, this was erected in somewhat more than five centuries after the second year of Darius; a short period of time when compared with that which elapsed from the creation to the giving of the law, or from the giving of the law to the coming of the Messiah’s kingdom. It must be understood that the word achath, once, has a clear sense, if understood of the evangelical age; for many political revolutions succeeded, as the conquest of Darius Codomanus, and the various fortunes of Alexander’s successors; but only one great and final religious revolution.” – Newcome.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Yet once; after many repetitions and confirmations of the new covenant, one more repetition, and but one more, rests to be made.

It is a little while; comparatively it was little; though five hundred and seventeen years from the second of Darius Hystaspes to the incarnation of Christ, a long time to us, who are short-lived, and short-sighted, but a little time compared with that between the first promise to Adam and Christs coming; or take any other shorter period, as between Abraham or David and Christ, this last period is short, a little while.

I will shake; whether it be metaphorical or literal, it was verified at the time of Christs coming into the world. After the return of the captivity, what with the commotions among the Grecians, Persians, and Romans, which began soon after this time, (the prophet points at this,) it was metaphorically fulfilled, all states were shaken either with invasions from abroad, or intestine dissensions among themselves: literally it was fulfilled by prodigies, and earthquakes, &c., as some have observed and recounted, at the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ.

The heavens; either states and governments of the world, or church affairs, which in Scripture are called the heavens; or the material heavens, and the firmament.

The earth, which, either figuratively or literally taken, will agree well with the text, and the history of times.

The sea; one part of that which is called earth, this lower globe.

The dry land, the other part of this inferior world; and both may, as former words, be literally or figuratively taken, and which better I do not undertake to determine.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6. Yet once, it isa little whileor, “(it is) yet a little while.”The Hebrew for “once” expresses the indefinitearticle “a” [MAURER].Or, “it is yet only a little while”; literally, “onelittle,” that is, a single brief space till a series ofmovements is to begin; namely, the shakings of nations soon to beginwhich are to end in the advent of Messiah, “the desire of allnations” [MOORE]. Theshaking of nations implies judgments of wrath on the foes ofGod’s people, to precede the reign of the Prince of peace (Isa13:13). The kingdoms of the world are but the scaffolding forGod’s spiritual temple, to be thrown down when their purpose isaccomplished. The transitoriness of all that is earthly should leadmen to seek “peace” in Messiah’s everlasting kingdom(Hag 2:9; Heb 12:27;Heb 12:28) [MOORE].The Jews in Haggai’s times hesitated about going forward with thework, through dread of the world power, Medo-Persia, influenced bythe craft of Samaria. The prophet assures them this and all otherworld powers are to fall before Messiah, who is to be associated withthis temple; therefore they need fear naught. So Heb12:26, which quotes this passage; the apostle compares theheavier punishment which awaits the disobedient under the NewTestament with that which met such under the Old Testament. At theestablishment of the Sinaitic covenant, only the earth was shaken tointroduce it, but now heaven and earth and all things are to beshaken, that is, along with prodigies in the world of nature, allkingdoms that stand in the way of Messiah’s kingdom, “whichcannot be shaken,” are to be upturned (Dan 2:35;Dan 2:44; Mat 21:44).Heb 12:27, “Yet oncemore,” favors English Version. Paul condensestogether the two verses of Haggai (Hag 2:6;Hag 2:7; Hag 2:21;Hag 2:22), implying that it wasone and the same shaking, of which the former verses of Haggai denotethe beginning, the latter the end. The shaking began introductory tothe first advent; it will be finished at the second. Concerning theformer, compare Mat 3:17; Mat 27:51;Mat 28:2; Act 2:2;Act 4:31; concerning the latter,Mat 24:7; Rev 16:20;Rev 18:20; Rev 20:11[BENGEL]. There isscarcely a prophecy of Messiah in the Old Testament which does not,to some extent at least, refer to His second coming [SIRISAAC NEWTON].Ps 68:8 mentions the heavensdropping near the mountain (Sinai); but Haggai speaks of the wholecreated heavens: “Wait only a little while, though thepromised event is not apparent yet; for soon will God change thingsfor the better: do not stop short with these preludes and fix youreyes on the present state of the temple [CALVIN].God shook the heavens by the lightnings at Sinai; the earth,that it should give forth waters; the sea, that it should bedivided asunder. In Christ’s time God shook the heaven, whenHe spake from it; the earth, when it quaked; the sea,when He commanded the winds and waves [GROTIUS].CICERO records at the timeof Christ the silencing of the heathen oracles; and DIO,the fall of the idols in the Roman capitol.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For thus saith the Lord of hosts;…. For the further encouragement of the builders of the temple, they are told, from the Lord of hosts, that in a little time, when such circumstances should meet as are here pointed at, the Messiah should come, and appear in this house, and give it a greater glory than ever Solomon’s temple had; for that this passage is to be understood of the Messiah and his times is clear from the apostle’s application of it, Heb 12:25 and even the ancient Jews themselves understood it of the Messiah, particularly R. Aquiba i, who lived in the times of Bar Cozbi, the false Messiah; though the more modern ones, perceiving how they are embarrassed with it; to support their hypothesis, shift it off from him:

Yet once, it [is] a little while: or, “once more”, as the apostle in the above place quotes it; which suggests that the Lord had before done something of the kind, that follows, shaking the heavens, c. as at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai and would do the same again, and more abundantly in the times of the Gospel, or of the Messiah. Jarchi interprets this of one trouble by the Grecian monarchy after the Persian, which would not last long: his note is,

“yet once, c. after that this kingdom of Persia that rules over you is ended, yet one shall rise up to rule over you, to distress you, the kingdom of Greece but its government shall be but a little time;”

and not very foreign from this sense does Bishop Chandler k render the words, “after one [kingdom] (the Grecian) it is a little while; (or after that) I will shake all the heavens”, c. and though it was five hundred years from this prophecy to the incarnation of Christ: yet this was but a little while with God, with whom a thousand years are as one day; and indeed with men it was but a short time, when compared with the first promise of his coming at the beginning of the world; or with the shaking of the earth at the giving of the law, soon after Israel came out of Egypt:

and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry [land]; which either intends the changes and revolutions made in the several kingdoms and nations of the world, between this prophecy and the coming of Christ, and which soon began to take place; for the Persian monarchy, now flourishing, was quickly shook and subdued by the Grecians; and in a little time the Grecian monarchy was destroyed by the Romans; and what changes they made in each of the nations of the world is well known: or else this designs the wonderful things that were done in the heavens, earth, and sea, at the birth of Christ, during his life, and at his death: at his birth a new star appeared in the heavens, which brought the wise men from the east to visit him; the angels of heaven descended, and sung Glory to God in the highest; Herod and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were shaken, moved, and troubled at the tidings of his birth; yea, people in all parts of Judea were in motion to be taxed in their respective cities at this time: stormy winds were raised, which agitated the waters of the sea in his lifetime; on which he walked, and which he rebuked; and this showed him to be the mighty God: at his death the heavens were darkened, the earth quaked, and rocks were rent asunder: if any particular earthquake about this time should be thought to be intended, the most terrible one was that which happened A. D. 17, when Coelius Rufus and Pomponius Flaccus were consuls, which destroyed twelve cities of Asia l; and these being near the sea, caused a motion there also. The apostle applies these words to the change made in the worship of God by the coming of Christ, when the carnal ordinances of the law were removed, and evangelical ordinances instituted, which shall remain until his second coming, Heb 12:26.

i T. Bab Sanhedrin, fol. 97. 2. & Gloss. in ib. k Defence of Christianity, p. 88. “adhue unum modicum est, [sc.] regni venturi.” Akiba apud Lyram in loc. l Taciti Annales, l. 2. c. 47.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

“For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Once more, in a short time it comes to pass, I shake heaven and earth, and the sea, and the dry. Hag 2:7. And I shake all nations, and the costly of all nations will come, and I shall fill this house with glory, saith Jehovah of hosts. Hag 2:8. Mine is the silver, and mine the gold, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts. Hag 2:9. The last glory of this house will be greater than the first, saith Jehovah of hosts; and in this place shall I give peace, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts.” Different explanations have been given of the definition of the time . Luther, Calvin, and others, down to Ewald and Hengstenberg, follow the Chaldee and Vulgate, and either take achath in the sense of the indefinite article or as a numeral, “adhuc unum modicum est,” or “it is yet a little thither.” But if achath belonged to as a numeral adjective, either in the one sense or the other, according to the arrangement adopted without exception in Hebrew (for ‘echad is not an adjective in Dan 8:13), it could not stand before , but must be placed after it. The difference of gender also precludes this combination, inasmuch as is not construed as a feminine in a single passage. We must therefore take as forming an independent clause of itself, i.e., as a more precise definition of . But ‘achath does not mean one = one time, or a short space of time (Burk, Hitzig, Hofmann); nor does it acquire this meaning from the clause ; nor can it be sustained by arbitrarily supplying . ‘Achath is used as a neuter in the sense of “once,” as in Exo 30:10; 2Ki 6:10; Job 40:5 (cf. Ewald, 269, b). , a little, i.e., a short time is it, equivalent to “soon,” in a short time will it occur (cf. Hos 8:10; Psa 37:10). The lxx have rendered it correctly , only they have left out . The words, “once more and indeed in a short time I shake,” etc., have not the meaning which Koehl. attaches to the correct rendering, viz., “Once, and only once, will Jehovah henceforth shake heaven and earth,” in which the standing at the head is both moved from its place, and taken, not in the sense of repetition or of continuance from the present to the future, but simply in the sense of an allusion to the future; in other words, it is completely deprived of its true meaning. For never loses its primary sense of repetition or return any more than the German noch (still or yet), so as to denote an occurrence in the future without any allusion whatever to an event that has already happened or is in existence still, not even in 2Sa 19:36 and 2Ch 17:6, with which Koehler endeavours to support his views, without observing that in these passages is used in a very different sense, signifying in 2 Sam. praeterea, and in 2 Chronicles “moreover.” 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).

On the other hand, the objection offered by Koehler, that that shaking did not extend beyond Sinai and the Sinaitic region, either according to the historical account in Exo 19:16-18, or the poetical descriptions in Jdg 5:4-5, and Psa 68:8-9, is incorrect. For not only in the two poetical descriptions referred to, but also in Hab 3:6, the manifestation of God upon Sinai is represented as a trembling or shaking of the earth, whereby the powers of the heaven were set in motion, and the heavens dropped down water. The approaching shaking of the world will be much more violent; it will affect the heaven and the earth in all their parts, the sea and the solid ground, and also the nations. Then will the condition of the whole of the visible creation and of the whole of the world of nations be altered. The shaking of the heaven and the earth, i.e., of the universe, is closely connected with the shaking of all nations. It is not merely a figurative representation of symbol, however, of great political agitations, but is quite as real as the shaking of the nations, and not merely follows this and is caused by it, but also precedes it and goes side by side with it, and only in its completion does it form the conclusion to the whole of the shaking of the world. For earthquakes and movements of the powers of heaven are heralds and attendants of the coming of the Lord to judgment upon the whole earth, through which not only the outward form of the existing world is altered, but the present world itself will finally be reduced to ruins (Isa 24:18-20), and out of the world thus perishing there are to be created a new heaven and a new earth (Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22; 2Pe 3:10-13). But if the shaking of heaven and earth effects a violent breaking up of the existing condition of the universe, the shaking of all nations can only be one by which an end is put to the existing condition of the world of nations, by means of great political convulsions, and indeed, according to the explanation given in Hag 2:22, by the Lord’s overthrowing the throne of the kingdoms, annihilating their power, and destroying their materials of war, so that one falls by the sword of the other, that is to say, by wars and revolutions, by which the might of the heathen world is broken and annihilated. It follows from this, that the shaking of the heathen is not to be interpreted spiritually, either as denoting “the marvellous, supernatural, and violent impulse by which God impels His elect to betake themselves to the fold of Christ” (Calvin), or “the movement to be produced among the nations through the preaching of the gospel, with the co-operation of the Holy Spirit.” The impulse given by the preaching of the gospel and the operation of the Holy Spirit to such souls among the nations as desire salvation, to seek salvation from the living God, is only the fruit of the shaking of the heathen world, and is not to be identified with it; for the coming of the chemdth kol – haggoym is defined by with the Vav consec. as a consequence of the shaking of the nations.

By chemdath kol – haggoym most of the earlier orthodox commentators understood the Messiah, after the example of the Vulgate, et veniet desideratus gentibus , and Luther’s “consolation of the Gentiles.” But the plural is hardly reconcilable with this. If, for example, chemdath were the subject of the clause, as most of the commentators assume, we should have the singular . For the rule, that in the case of two nouns connected together in the construct state, the verb may take the number of the governed noun, applies only to cases in which the governed noun contains the principal idea, so that there is a constructio ad sensum ; whereas in the case before us the leading idea would be formed, not by kol – haggoym , but by chemdath , desideratus , or consolation, as a designation of the Messiah. Hence Cocc., Mark, and others, have taken chemdath as the accusative of direction: “that they (sc., the nations) may come to the desire of all nations – namely, to Christ.” It cannot be objected to this, as Koehler supposes, that to designate Christ as the desire of all nations would be either erroneous, inasmuch as in the time of Haggai only a very few heathen knew anything about Israel’s hope of a Messiah, or perfectly unintelligible to his contemporaries, especially if the meaning of the epithet were that the heathen would love Him at some future time. For the latter remark is at once proved to be untenable by the prophecy of Isaiah and Micah, to the effect that all nations will flow to the mountain of God’s house. After such prophecies, the thought that the heathen would one day love the Messiah could not be unintelligible to the contemporaries of our prophet; and there is not the smallest proof of the first assertion. In the year 520 b.c., when the ten tribes had already been scattered among the heathen for 200 years, and the Judaeans for more than seventy years, the Messianic hope of Israel could not be any longer altogether unknown to the nations. It may with much better reason be objected to the former view, that if chemdh were the accusative of direction, we should expect the preposition ‘el in order to avoid ambiguity. But what is decisive against it is the fact, that the coming of the nations to the Messiah would be a thought completely foreign to the context, since the Messiah cannot without further explanation be identified with the temple. Chemdah signifies desire (2Ch 21:20), then the object of desire, that in which a man finds pleasure and joy, valuables. Chemdath haggoym is therefore the valuable possessions of the heathen, or according to Hag 2:8 their gold and silver, or their treasures and riches; not the best among the heathen (Theod. Mops., Capp., Hitzig). Hence chemdath cannot be the accusative of direction, since the thought that the heathen come to the treasures of all the heathen furnishes no suitable meaning; but it is the nominative or subject, and is construed as a collective word with the verb in the plural. The thought is the following: That shaking will be followed by this result, or produce this effect, that all the valuable possessions of the heathen will come to fill the temple with glory. Compare Isa 60:5, where the words, “the possessions (riches) of the heathen ( chel goym ) will come to thee,” i.e., be brought to Jerusalem, express the same thought; also Isa 60:11. With the valuable possessions of the heathen the Lord will glorify His temple, or fill it with kabhod . Kabhod without the article denotes the glory which the temple will receive through the possessions of the heathen presented there. The majority of the commentators have referred these words to the glorification of the temple through the appearance of Jesus in it, and appeal to Exo 40:34-35; 1Ki 8:10-11; 2Ch 5:13-14, according to which passages the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple at their dedication, so that they identify kabhod (glory) with k e bhod Y e hovah (glory of Jehovah) without reserve. But this is impracticable, although the expression kabhod is chosen by the prophet with a reference to those events, and the fulfilment of our prophecy did commence with the fact that Jehovah came to His temple in the person of Jesus Christ (Mal 3:1).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Here the Prophet expresses more clearly, and confirms more fully, what I have said—that God would in time bring help to the miserable Jews, because he would not disappoint the assurance given to the fathers. This declaration, then, depends on the covenant before mentioned; and hence the causative particle is used, For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, as yet a small one it is, or, yet shortly, I will fill this house with glory. The expression a small thing, most interpreters aptly to time. Yet there are those who think the subject itself is denoted. The more received opinion is, that it means a small duration, a short time, because God would soon make a change for the better. “Though then there does not as yet appear the accomplishment of the promises, by which ye have hitherto supported your faith and your hope, yet after a short time God will really prove that he has spoken nothing falsely to you.”

There are yet some, as I have said, who think that the matter itself is denoted by the Prophet, even that the Temple did not yet appear in splendor before the eyes of men, a small one it is, that is, Ye see not indeed a building such as that was, before the Assyrians and the Chaldeans took possession of the city; but let not your eyes remain fixed on the appearance of this Temple. Let then this small one as yet pass by; but in a short time this house will be filled with glory

With regard to the main object, it was the Prophet’s design to strengthen the minds of the godly, that they might not think that the power of God was inefficient, though he had not as yet performed what they had hoped. In short, they were not to judge by present appearances of what had been previously said of their redemption. We said yesterday that the minds of the godly were heavily depressed, because the Prophets had spoken in high terms of the Temple as well as of the kingdom: the kingdom was as yet nothing; and the temple was more like a shed than what might have been compared in glory with the former Temple. It was hence necessary for the Prophet to meet this objection; and this is the reason why he bids them to overlook the present appearance, and to think of the glory which was yet hidden. As yet, he says, it is a small one; that is, “There is no reason for you to despair, though the grandeur of the Temple does not as yet appear to be so great as you have conceived; but, on the contrary, let your minds pass over to that restoration which is still far distant. As yet then a small one it is; and I will move the heavens and the earth. ” (146)

In a word, God here bids them to exercise patience, until he should put forth the ineffable power of his hand to restore fully his Church; and this is what is meant by the shaking of the heaven and the earth.

But this is a remarkable passage. The Jews indeed, who are very absurd in everything connected with the kingdom of Christ, pervert what is here said by the Prophet, and even reduce it to nothing. But the Apostle in Heb 12:1 reminds us of what God means here. For this passage contains an implied contrast between the law and the gospel, between redemption, just mentioned here, and that which was to be expected, and was at length made known by the coming of Christ. God, then, when he redeemed his people from Egypt, as well as from Babylon, moved the earth: but the Prophet announces here something greater—that God would shake the heaven and the earth. But that the meaning of the Prophet may appear more evident, each sentence must be examined in order.

He says first, this once, shortly. I am inclined to apply this to time, that I may not depart from what is commonly received. But there is no reason for us to contend on the subject, because it makes little or no difference as to the main point. For we have said that what the Prophet had in view was to show that the Jews were not to fix their eyes and their minds on the appearance of the Temple at the time: “Allow,” he says, “and give place to hope, because your present state shall not long remain; for the Lord will shake the heaven and the earth; think then of God’s power, how great it is; does he not by his providence rule both the earth and the heaven? And he will shake all things above and below, rather than not to restore his Church; he will rather change the appearance of the whole world, than that redemption should not be fully accomplished. Be not then unwilling to be satisfied with these preludes, but know what God’s power can do: for though it may be necessary to throw the heaven and the earth into confusions, yet this shall be done, rather than that your enemies should prevent that full restoration, of which the Prophets have so often spoken.” But the Apostle very justly says, that the gospel is here set in contrast with the law; for God exhibited his wonderful power, when the law was promulgated on mount Sinai; but a fuller power shone forth at the coming of Christ, for then the heaven, as well as the earth, was shaken. It is not, then, without reason that the Apostle concludes that God speaks now to us from heaven, for his majesty appears more splendid in the gospel than formerly in the law: and hence we are less excusable, if we despise him now speaking in the person of his only begotten Son, and thus speaking to show to us that the whole world is subject to him.

He then adds, I will move all the nations, and they shall come. After having mentioned the heaven and the earth, he now shows that he would arrest the attention of all mortals, so as to turn them according to his will, in any way it may please him: Come, he says, shall all nations—How? because I shall shake them. Here again the Prophet teaches us that men come not to Christ except through the wonderful agency of God. He might have spoken more simply, I will lead all nations, as it is said elsewhere; but his purpose was to express something more, even that the impulse by which God moves his elect to betake themselves to the fold of Christ is supernatural. Shaking seems a forcible act. Lest men, then, should obscure the power of God, by which they are roused that they may obey Christ, and submit to his authority, it is here by the Prophet expressed by this term, in order that they might understand that the Lord does not work in an usual or common manner, when they are thus changed.

But it must be also observed, that men are thus powerfully, and in an extraordinary or supernatural manner influenced, so that they follow spontaneously at the same time. The operation of God is then twofold; for it is first necessary to shake men, that they may unlearn their whole character, that is, that forgetting their former nature, they may willingly receive the yoke of Christ. We indeed know how great is our perverseness, and how unnameable we are, until God subdues us by his Spirit. There is need in such a case of a violent shaking. But we are not forced to obey Christ, as lions and wild beasts are, who indeed yield, but still retain their inward ferocity, and roar, though led in chains and subdued by scourges and beatings. We are not, then, so shaken, that our inward rebellion remains in us; but we are shaken, so that our disposition is changed, and we receive willingly the yoke of Christ. This is the reason why the Prophet says, I will shake all nations, and they shall come; that is, there will be indeed a wonderful conversion, when the nations who previously despised God, and regarded true religion and piety with the utmost hatred, shall habituate themselves to the ruling power of God: and they shall come, because they shall be so drawn by his hidden influence, that the obedience they shall render will be voluntary. We now perceive the meaning of the Prophet.

He afterwards adds, The desire of all nations. This admits of two explanations. The first is, that nations shall come and bring with them everything that is precious, in order to consecrate it to the service of God; for the Hebrews call whatever is valuable a desire; so that under this term they include all riches, honors, pleasures, and everything of this kind. Hence some render the passage thus, I will shake all nations, and come shall the desire of all nations. As there is a change of number; others will have ב, beth, or מ, mem, to be understood, They shall come with what they desire; that is, the nations shall not come empty, but shall gather all their treasures to be a holy oblation to God. But we may understand what he says of Christ, Come shall the desire of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory. We indeed know that Christ was the expectation of the whole world, according to what is said by Isaiah. And it may be properly said, that when the desire of all nations shall come, that is, when Christ shall be manifested, in whom the wishes of all ought to center, the glory of the second Temple shall then be illustrious; but as it immediately follows, Mine is the silver, and mine is the gold, the more simple meaning is that which I first stated—that the nations would come, bringing with them all their riches, that they might offer themselves and all their possessions as a sacrifice to God.

It is, then, better to read what follows as an explanation, Mine is the silver, mine is the gold, saith Jehovah; that is, “I have not through want of money deferred hitherto the complete building of the Temple; for what can hinder me from amassing gold and silver from all quarters? Should it so please me, I could in a short time build a Temple by all the wealth of the world. Is it not indeed in my power to create mountains of gold and silver, by which I might erect for myself a Temple? Ye hence see that wealth is not wanting to me to build the Temple which I have promised; but the time is not arrived. Therefore they who believe the preceding predictions, ought to wait and to look forward, until the suitable time shall come.” This is the import of the passage. (147)

He at length declares that the glory of the second Temple would be greater than that of the first, and that there would be peace in that place. As to the words there is nothing obscure; but we ought especially to attend to what is said.

It must, indeed, be first observed, that what is said here of the future glory of the Temple is to be applied to the excellency of those spiritual blessings which appeared when Christ was revealed, and are still conspicuous to us through faith; for ungodly men are so blind that they see them not. And this we must bear in mind, lest we dream like some gross interpreters, who think that what is here said was in part fulfilled when Herod reconstructed the Temple. For though that was a sumptuous building, yet there is no doubt but that it was an attempt of the Devil to delude the Jews, that they might cease to hope for Christ. Such was also, probably, the craft of Herod. We indeed know that he was only a half-Jew. He professed himself to be one of Abraham’s children; but he accommodated his habits, we know, to those of the Jews, oddly for his own advantage. That they might not look for Christ, this delusive and empty spectacle was presented to them, so as almost to astound them. Though this, however, may not have entered into the mind of Herod, it is yet certain that the Devil’s design was to present to the Jews this deceptive shade, that they might not raise up their thoughts to look for the coming of Christ, as the time was then near at hand.

God might, indeed, immediately at the beginning have caused a magnificent temple to be built: as he had allowed a return to the people, so he might have given them courage, and supplied them with materials, to render the latter Temple equal or even superior to the Temple of Solomon. But Cyrus prohibited by an edict the Temple to be built so high, and he also made its length somewhat smaller: Why was this done? and why also did Darius do the same, who yet liberally helped the Jews, and spared no expense in building the Temple? How was it that both these kings, though guided by the Spirit of God, did not allow the Temple to be built with the same splendor with which it had been previously erected? This did not happen without the wonderful counsel of God; for we know how gross in their notions the Jews had been, and we see that even the Apostles were entangled in the same error; for they expected that the kingdom of Christ would be no other than an earthly one. Had then this Temple been equally magnificent with the former, and had the kingdom become such as it had been, the Jews would have acquiesced in these outward pomps; so that Christ would have been despised, and God’s spiritual favor would have been esteemed as nothing. Since, then, they were so bent on earthly happiness, it was necessary for them to be awakened; and the Lord had regard to their weakness, by not allowing a splendid Temple to be built. But in suffering a counterfeit Temple to be built by Herod, when the manifestation of Christ was nigh, he manifested his vengeance by punishing their ingratitude, rather than his favor; and I call it counterfeit, because its splendor was never approved by God. Though Herod spent great treasures on that building, he yet profaned rather than adorned the Temple. Foolishly, then, do some commemorate what Helena, queen of Adiabenians, had laid out, and think that thus a credit is in some measure secured to this prophecy. But it was on the contrary Satan who attempted to deceive by such impostures and crafts, that he might draw away the minds of the godly from the beauty of the spiritual Temple.

But why does the prophet mention gold and silver? He did this in conformity with what was usual and common; for whenever the Prophets speak of the kingdom of Christ, they delineate or describe its splendor in figurative terms, suitable to their own age. When Isaiah foretells the restoration of the Church, he declares that the Church would be all gold and silver, and whatever glittered with precious stones; and in Isa 60:1 he especially sets forth the magnificence of the Temple, as though nations from all parts were to bring for sacrifice all their precious things. But Isaiah speaks figuratively, as all the other Prophets do. So then what we read of gold and of silver ought to be so explained as to be applied mystically to the kingdom of Christ; as we have already observed respecting Mal 1:11 —

‘

They shall offer to me, saith the Lord, pure sacrifices from the rising to the setting of the sun.’

What are these sacrifices? Are heifers yet to be offered, or lambs, or other animals? By no means; but we must regard the spiritual character of the priesthood; for as the gold of which the Prophet now speaks, and the silver, ought to be taken in a spiritual sense; for since Christ has appeared in the world, it is not God’s will to be served with gold and silver vessels; so also there is no altar on which victims are to be sacrificed, and no candlestick; in a word, all the symbols of the law have ceased. It hence follows that the Prophet speaks of the spiritual ornaments of the Temple. And thus we perceive how the glory of the second Temple is to be greater than that of the first.

It then follows, that God would give peace in this place; as though he had said that it would be well with the Jews if they only waited patiently for the complete fulfillment of redemption. But it must be observed, that this peace was not so evident to them that they could enjoy it according to the perception of the flesh; but it was that kind of peace of which Paul speaks, and which, he says, exceeds all understanding (Phi 4:7.) In short, the people could not have comprehended what the Prophet teaches here respecting the future splendor of the Temple, except they leaped over all the obstacles which seemed to obstruct the progress of complete redemption; and so it was ever necessary for them to have recourse to this truth— yet a little while; as though he said that they were patiently to endure while God was exercising their faith: but that the time would come, and that shortly, when the Lord would fill that house with glory that is, when Christ would bring witch him all fullness of glory; for though they were to gather the treasures of a thousand worlds into one mass, such a glory would yet be corruptible; but when God the Father appeared in the person of his own Son, he then glorified indeed his Temple; and his majesty shone forth so much that there was nothing wanting to a complete perfection.

(146) Our common version is no doubt the best, and is materially followed by Newcome, Henderson, and many others. Retaining the tense of the passage, I would render the clause thus,

Yet once, shortly will it be, And I will shake, etc.

“

Shortly will it be, ” [ מעט היא ] (shortly it) may be taken as a parenthesis.

Yet once more, in a short time— Newcome.

Yet once, within a little,— Henderson.

The shaking of the heavens, earth, sea, and dry land is explained, according to the common manner of the Prophets, in the next verse, by shaking of all nations: the material world is named in the first instance, while its inhabitants are intended. So Henderson very properly renders the [ מ ] at the beginning of the seventh verse, “Yea.”— Ed.

(147) Many have been the criticisms on this clause, both as to its grammatical construction and as to the import of the word rendered “desire.” The verb “come” is plural, and the word for “desire” is singular. The easiest solution, and countenanced by the Septuagint, where the word is rendered τὰ ἐκλεκτὰ— “choice things,” is to consider [ חמדת ] as a plural, the [ ו ] being omitted. This would remove th egrammatical anomaly, and the sentiment, as Calvin says, woud be more consonant with the context.

And come shall the choice things of all nations.

There is no ground for the objection which Bishop Chandler states, that to “come” is in this case an improper expression; for there are other similar instances. See Jos 6:12; Isa 60:5. It is also applied to trees, Isa 60:13; and to incense, Jer 6:20.

Newcome takes the word as a plural, but applies it as deliciae in Latin to a person, and refers to Dan 9:23; where Daniel is called [ חמודות ], rendered in our version “greatly beloved.”

The version of Henderson is the following—

And the things desired by all nations shall come.

He considers that they are the blessings of the kingdom of Christ, and thinks that the Prophet refers to the general expectation which pervaded the world of some better state of things, and especially of some deliverer.

But the most tenable is the view of Calvin, which has been held by Kimchi, Drusius, Vitringa, and others.— Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES.]

Hag. 2:6. Once] Yet only a little while; lit. one little, i.e. brief space; till a series of movements is to begin. Shake] by great moral and physical revolutions, preparatory to the establishment of Christs kingdom (Mat. 24:29; Heb. 12:26-28).

Hag. 2:7.] Having figuratively set forth great political changes, the prediction is repeated, and the arrival of the blessings desired, announced. Desire] Some apply these words to the Church, but the majority to Christ. This is not the place for a discussion [cf. Henderson and Wordsworth]. Glory] Not outward furniture, but the presence of God himself (cf. Zec. 2:5; Eze. 43:4-5; Exo. 40:34-35; 1Ki. 8:11).

Hag. 2:8. Mine] Hence they should be free from anxiety in poverty, and cease to mourn the absence from the temple of these things.

Hag. 2:9. Greater] Not in architectural splendour, but in the presence of Jehovah the Messiah, and in peace between man and man, and God and mantemporal peace under Persian rule, and spiritual in Jesus Christ.

HOMILETICS

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GODS KINGDOM.Hag. 2:6-8

The Jews are encouraged to proceed with the work by the assurance that Jehovah would, as the governor among the nations, in a brief space, exert his almighty power in effecting a great revolution in the state of the kingdoms of this world, preparatory to the establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah. This mighty change is first described in the usual figurative language of prophecy, as a convulsion of the physical universe, and then literally as a convulsion of all nations. The passage has long been regarded as one of the principal prophecies of the Redeemers advent [Henderson].

I. Revolutions prepare for its establishment. I will shake the heavens and the earth, &c.

1. Physical preparations. The kingdoms of the world are but the scaffolding for the spiritual kingdom, and will be overturned when they have accomplished their end. All earthly mansions are moveable and transitory, subservient to the kingdom that cannot be moved (Heb. 12:26-28). Recognize

(1) Divine agency in the worldI will.

(2) Divine orderwill shake. Disturbance before repose, war before peace, is a law in the operations of nature, the government of nations and the history of the Christian Church. In the wars of Alexander the Great and his four successors, in the conquests of Rome, the world was shaken and reduced to order.

2. Moral preparations. I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come. It was an ancient notion that the gods forsook the cities that were taken by the enemy. Hence the power of the gods decayed and national deities were destroyed by the conquests of Roman armies. The nations were thus prepared for the gospel (cf. Keil and Hengs. in loco). If men did not definitely desire Christ, they were not satisfied with painful rites and bloody sacrifices. They were unsettled, and longed for some one to satisfy their desires. Bewildered by superstitions, they craved for Divine light. And as the time of the Redeemers advent drew near, there was a general expectation of a deliverer in Jewish and Gentile world.

II. All nations contribute to its establishment. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine. According to Josephus, gifts adorned the temple, and dedicatory offerings were presented in it. King Artaxerxes and his counsellors bestowed presents upon Ezra (Ezr. 7:15), and the help of Darius Hystaspes (Ezr. 6:6-10) may be regarded as a pledge of the fulfilment of the promise. The riches of kingdoms flowed into the temple. Material wealth will yet be given for the extension and inward growth of Gods kingdom. All that is valuable in labour, all that is achieved by intellect, all that is pure and lofty in science, art, and religion, are offerings which the world has brought or will bring into the Church. The glory and honour of the Gentiles shall be presented in the courts of Zion (Rev. 21:26).

THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS.Hag. 2:7

This refers unquestionably to the Messiah, yet the title seems to disagree with other parts of Scripture and with fact. He was in the world, and the world knew him notdespised and rejected of men. How then can he be called the Desire of all nations? This character is justified five ways. First, by the general expectation that prevailed in the world previously to his advent. It is well known that there was a looking out for some great deliverer and benefactor nigh at hand. Testimonies from heathen authors have been collected, especially a little poem of Virgils, written a few years only before the birth of Christ, which contains a prophecy and foreshadows a personage who would restore the peace and plenty of the golden reign. The sentiment was handed down by tradition, but originally derived from a Divine source, the early and repeated promise of him that should come. Secondly, by the need all mankind had of such a Saviour as he would be. Darkness covered the earth. Men knew not the supreme goodfound only vanity and vexation of spirit in their pursuits and attainmentshad no support in trouble, and their uneasiness arising from guilt, death, and futurity, led them to offer thousands of rams, rivers of oil, and to give their first-born for their transgressions. No remedy could be found to remove doubts and fears. Though they had no revelation of Jesus, who meets their condition, yet they ignorantly groped after what he alone can impart. He therefore deserves to be called the Desire of all nations, just as a physician, able and willing to cure all diseases, is the desire of all patients. Thirdly, by being so attractive in himself, that all would actually long after him if they knew him. He has every excellency in person, every perfection in character. Nothing in creation will afford a proper image. All the loveliness of man and angels cannot be compared to his charms. He is altogether lovely. Do we esteem riches? His are unsearchable. Admire friendship? He sticketh closer than a brother. Applaud benevolence? His love passeth knowledge.

His worth if all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love him too.

Fourthly, by his having had admirers in every country. Wherever believers have been found, they have been distinguished by the same convictions and dispositions with regard to him. Abraham in Canaan rejoiced to see his day. Job in the land of Uz knew that his Redeemer lived. Wise men from Persia paid him homage, and devout men from every nation under heaven joined in the sacrifices and ceremonies of the temple. John heard his praise from an innumerable multitude out of all nations and tongues. Lastly, he is so named because in due time he will be prized and gloried in by all the ends of the earth. To him shall the gathering of the people be. He is the salvation prepared for all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles. All kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him and call him blessed. How does he appear to me? Is he all my salvation, all my desire? Will it complete my happiness to be like him and see him as he is? [Jay].

GODS CLAIMS AND MANS STEWARDSHIP.Hag. 2:8

In commanding the erection of a glorious house for the Lord to replace the one that had been destroyed, and which then lay waste, a principle is asserted which is unaffected by time or circumstances. Gods rights in man and mans possessions may be put among the things which change not.

I. Gods claim. God himself makes the announcement. He is jealous for his honour and rights. What he orders to be done, he expects to be done, even if it be difficult to accomplish and involve many sacrifices.

1. The claim is just. When God demands the silver and the gold to be devoted to his service, he is not usurping authority that belongs to another.

2. The claim is absolute. Mine may be written by the finger of God upon all the wealth of the globe (cf. Psa. 50:10-11, and Isaiah 40, on Gods absolute proprietorship).

3. The claim is universal. It was true concerning the exiles returned from long captivity, and it is the present truth concerning the possessions of all who are now in the land of the living.

II. Mans stewardship. Possessions entrusted to our keeping or use involve us in responsibility. Silver and gold are a trust from God. They may mean so much intelligence, industry, and self-sacrifice on the part of their temporary ownerbut even those mental and moral qualities, which win silver and gold, are enjoyed by Gods bounty, and employed by Gods providence. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.

1. Our stewardship ought to be recognized. We may ignore accountability, but putting it out of mind will not put it out of existence. By considering, laying to heart, we shall escape the wrong and mischief of forgetfulness.

2. Our stewardship should be thankfully acknowledged. The inward realization ought to have a glad expression. If the blessing of the Lord makes us rich, he ought to be blessed for his munificent gifts. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me.

3. Our stewardship should be faithfully discharged. It is required in stewards that a man should be found faithful. Diligent employment of possessions, of which silver and gold may stand for symbols, is the condition of their continuance and increase. For unto every one that hath (or uses what he hath) shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not (or uses not what he hath) shall be taken away that which he hath. Because much silver and gold may not be ours we do not escape the levy of divine law for Gods service. For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, &c. Remember that the eternal rewards are given, not to the conspicuous, famous, or successful servant. The divine commendation of well done, and the divine dignity and blessedness are bestowed upon good and faithful servants [Mt. Braithwaite].

THE GLORY OF THE LATTER HOUSE.Hag. 2:9

The glory of the second temple was not in its outward structure, but its inward furniture. Splendid buildings, painted windows, and stately forms are surpassed by spiritual blessings. There is a glory that excelleth.

I. In the purity of its worship. In the first house was worldly splendour; in the second, heavenly treasures. In one, dark shadows; in the other, the real substance. There was the ministration of the letter, here of the Spirit. One temple was often polluted with idolatry (2Ki. 23:11-12), the other is holy in its elements and institutions. Rites and ceremonies gradually retired into the background; prayer and praise took their place. Thus was kept alive a higher and purer type of religion than outward forms and gorgeous ritual. That which was made glorious, had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

II. In the residence of its owner. God who owned the temple promised to dwell in it. The first glory was covered in the cloud, the second veiled in humanity. The Messiah was the glory of his people Israel. His presence would be more than a substitute for the distinguished articles wanting. Many eminent persons entered the temple, but he was greater than the temple. It exists for him, and we must assemble to meet with him. Without him, however splendid, there is no glory; with him, however humble, it becomes the palace of the great King. The Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.

III. In the blessedness of its attendants. In this place will I give peace. The Jews had great trouble, but Gods presence secured peace and protection. Peace in Christ to the penitent sinner and the doubting Christian is the glory of Gods house. Peace with men first, and eventually peace on earth. Convulsions in the natural and revolutions in the political world increase the distress of nations with perplexity (Luk. 21:25-27), and create a longing desire for the Prince of Peace. When he reigns there shall be perpetual peace. Peace from God and based upon his right can never be destroyed. It abounds in depth and duration. In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.

Peace is the end of all thingstearless peace;
Who by the immovable basis of Gods throne
Takes her perpetual stand; and of herself
Prophetic, lengthens aye by aye her sceptre [Bailey].

HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES

Hag. 2:6. The Messiahs kingdom.

1. Introduced by general shaking.
2. Ending in general satisfaction. As the first dispensation was introduced by the shaking of the mount, so the second by the revolutions of nations. These commotionsthe presage of Gods help and the fulfilment of his promise. The Desire of all nations shall come.

Hag. 2:7-8. Notice

1. The absolute dominion over the worlds wealth.
2. The subserviency of this wealth to the promotion of Christs kingdom.
3. The confidence this should beget in the minds of Gods people. Every penny bears Gods superscription as well as Csars [Henry]. The comparative poverty of the Church is not because God cannot bestow riches upon her, but because there are better blessings than wealth that are often incompatible with its possession [Lange].

Hag. 2:9. Peace.

1. The blessing bestowed.
2. The source from whence it comesI, saith the Lord of Hosts.

3. The certainty of its possessionI will give.

4. The place in which it is givenIn this house. Every house of God is a place where God gives peace, and every place of peace is also a house of God [Lange].

On the whole discourse: The glory of Gods kingdom.

(1) Its conditionsthe faithfulness of his people to all their covenant obligations and duties, their obedience, their faith and their courage securing his favour and help.
(2) Its naturethe constant reception of increasing multitudes of Gentiles with their treasures of devotion and service; and the abiding presence of Gods Spirit diffusing peace and joy [Lange].

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2

Hag. 2:6-9. Shake. The prophet lays stress upon the brevity of the time, for the purpose of comforting. And only what is short in the eyes of men is fitted for this. Even there were forebodings that the time of this empire (Persian) would soon be accomplished, and the rapid conquests of Alexander gave fulfilment to this foreboding. And even his power, which seemed destined to last for ever, very speedily succumbed to the lot of all temporal things. The two most powerful kingdoms that grew out of the monarchy of Alexander, viz. the Syrian and Egyptian, destroyed one another. The Romans now attained to the government of the world; but at the very time when they appeared to be at the summit of their greatness, their shaking had very considerably advanced [Hengstenberg].

Hag. 2:8. Gold is mine. Trust Providence for the supply of your wants in the ways of duty and righteousness [Nicholls].

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(6) Yet once, it is a little while.The construction is very difficult. The best rendering appears to be, Yet one season more (supplying th before achath), it is but a little while, and, &c. The meaning of these clauses is then that given by Keilviz., that the period between the present and the predicted great change of the world will be but one periodi.e., one uniform epochand that this epoch will be a brief one. The LXX. (followed in Heb. 12:27) omits the words it is a little while altogether, and so is enabled to render I will yet shake once (i.e., one single time, and one only), a rendering which, if we retain those words, is apparently impossible. The fact is, the original passage here, as in other cases, must be treated without deference to its meaning when interwoven in New Testament argument. There is yet to be an interval of time, of limited duration, and then shall come a new era, when the glory of Gods presence shall be manifested more fully and extensively. Notwithstanding its intimate connection with the Jewish Temple (Hag. 2:7; Hag. 2:9), this new dispensation may well be regarded as that of the Messiah, for Malachi in like manner connects His self-manifestation with the Temple. (Comp. Mal. 3:1, and see our Introduction, 2.) Without pretending to find a fulfilment of all details, we may regard the prophets anticipations as sufficiently realised when the Saviours Advent introduced a dispensation which surpassed in glory (see 2Co. 3:7-11) that of Moses, and which extended its promises to the Gentiles. When Haggai speaks here and in Hag. 2:22 of commotions of nature ushering in this new revelation, he speaks according to the usage of the Hebrew poets, by whom Divine interposition is frequently depicted in colouring borrowed from the incidents of the Exodus period. (See Habakkuk 3; Psa. 18:7-15, Psalms 93, 97) If the words are to be pressed, their fulfilment at Christs coming must be searched for rather in the moral than the physical sphere, in changes effected in the human heart (comp. Luk. 3:5) rather than on the face of nature.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Hag 2:6-9 expand the promise of Hag 2:4-5. Jehovah will manifest his presence and power by a great shaking of nature and of the nations of the earth (6, 7a); as a result the nations will recognize his supremacy and bring costly presents to his temple (7b, 8). Then the magnificence of the new temple will surpass that of the old, and Jehovah will add to its splendor by making it his dwelling place, from which he will dispense permanent peace and prosperity to the community (9). Similar thoughts are expressed in the first three visions of Zechariah (Zec 1:7 to Zec 2:13).

6-8. Yet once, it is a little while The Hebrew is peculiar, and various interpretations have been suggested. If the text is correct, which is doubted by some, the meaning seems to be that once more Jehovah will shake heaven and earth (for former shakings, compare Exo 19:16-18; Jdg 5:4-5; Mic 1:3-4; Nah 1:2-6); and that this new (and final) shaking will take place in a short time.

Shake The convulsions spoken of here are those connected by other prophets with the day of Jehovah, which is undoubtedly the crisis in the mind of Haggai. All nature is to be convulsed by the terrible manifestation of Jehovah (see on Joe 2:10-11; Joe 2:30-31).

All nations The prophet expects political upheavals in which the nations hostile to the remnant will be overthrown, and this overthrow will pave the way for the establishment of the kingdom of God in all its glory. Political disturbances had begun throughout the Persian empire before 520, and both Haggai and Zechariah expected that these troubles would spread until the empire would go to pieces. With the oppressor gone, they expected the glories of the Messianic age to be ushered in (see on Zec 1:11, and Introduction, p. 550). In this respect the utterances of these postexilic prophets resemble those of the prophets before the exile, who expected the Messianic era to begin immediately after the overthrow of Assyria (for example, Isa 10:32 to Isa 11:5; Mic 4:11 to Mic 5:4; Nah 1:15 to Nah 2:2).

The desire of all nations shall come R.V., “the precious things of all nations shall come.” The latter is a correct reproduction of the sense. Desire is equivalent to object of desire or that which is desired, which is not the Messiah, nor the choice and noble spirits among the nations, but their valuable possessions (LXX. has plural), including among other things the silver and gold mentioned in Hag 2:8. These precious things will be brought into the temple (compare Isa 60:5) by those among the nations who survive the shaking and who become convinced through the terrible manifestation of Jehovah that he alone is God (compare Zec 14:16).

With glory Not the glory of the divine presence or glory due to heavenly gifts, but glory or splendor due to the bringing of rich presents by the heathen, to supplement the limited resources of the builders.

Silver gold is mine Therefore it is only proper that they should bring treasures to him.

9. At present the outlook may be discouraging, the new temple may seem “as nothing” when compared with the former (Hag 2:3), but in the end it will be glorious, even more so than the temple of Solomon.

This latter house The temple now in process of building.

The former The temple of Solomon. Thus translated 9a means that the glory of the present temple will in the end surpass that of Solomon’s temple. The thought remains the same if the translation of R.V. (compare LXX.) is accepted, “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former.”

Latter glory The glory promised in Hag 2:7.

This house See on Hag 2:3.

The former The glory present in the temple of Solomon.

In this place In Jerusalem as well as in the temple.

Will I give peace To this LXX. adds, “and peace of soul to renew the entire foundation, to rebuild this temple.” If this addition is a part of the original prophecy, which is not probable, the peace must be that which will be enjoyed in Jerusalem while the nations are being shaken; otherwise, the peace promised is that to be enjoyed subsequent to the shaking of the nations and the glorification of the temple, the peace of the Messianic age, which Jehovah will dispense from his new dwelling place (compare Isa 2:2-4; Isa 9:1-7).

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Hag 2:6-9. For thus saith the Lord The excellent Bishop Chandler has, with his usual learning and judgment, explained this remarkable prophesy; and it is from him that we have chiefly extracted what follows. The occasion of this prophesy, says he, was the dejection of the Jews at the unhopeful appearance of their new-erecting temple, Hag 2:3. The comfort, therefore, in the prophet’s message was surely suited to this circumstance, and contains a promise of some glory to be conferred on this temple, to make it exceed the glory of the former. Wherein the glory of the first temple consisted, is not said; but it sufficiently appears from the nature of their complaint, and from the eighth verse, that they considered it to have consisted in magnificence of structure, and richness of ornaments. These God makes no account of; the silver is mine, and the gold, &c. which is a manner of speaking not unfrequent in Scripture, to signify, that he hath no pleasure in such things. The glory that he intends for this latter house, is of another nature. It shall consist in the presence of Him, who is described as the desire of all nations, Hag 2:7 and as peace, Hag 2:9.and, or for in this place will I give peace. This glory they were not to expect immediately; great revolutions must first happen in the world; Hag 2:6. After one [kingdom] it is a little while; and [or after that] I will shake the heavens, &c. and the desire [or expectation] of all nations shall come; namely, into this house; which shall be the fillingthe completion of its glory. Thus the Hebrew should be Englished; and thus a date of time is fixed for the performance of the promise.

The Persian kingdom under which they lived was now subsisting; and, after one other kingdom, which should succeed that in dominion over them, it should be but a little while before God would shake the heavens, &c. that is, the whole Gentile world, or empire, to make way for the coming-in of the desire of all nations. Great changes in the political world are commonly foretold in Scripture under the figure of earthquakes; such were the commotions in the Roman empire from the death of Julius Caesar to the birth of Christ, which wasted all the provinces of the nation, and ended in a change of the Roman government, great enough to answer the description of it in Haggai.
For the farther clearing of the prophesy it should be shewn, first, that the desire of all nations is spoken of a person desired, not of things desirable, as some of the Jews understand it; secondly, that this person is the Messiah; and thirdly, that this person was to come under the temple that they were then building.

I. As to the first, we may observe, that if things, and not a person was meant, the expression shall come is absurd; for things cannot be said to come,which is a personal action, but to be brought. The application of the words to a person is natural and easy. The presence of one of high dignity gives honour and glory to the meanest cottage. It was the symbol of God’s presence in Solomon’s temple that was truly its glory; and it is the restoring of this glory in the days of the Messiah, which, in the judgment of many Jews, is to make out the glory of another temple. Whomsoever God shall visibly manifest himself upon, may in some sense be called the glory of God; and should he do this most gloriously in the person of the Messiah, the Jews would own that his presence in the temple would be the glory of it, if you would grant, at the same time, that he was not yet come: but come, or not come, makes no alteration in the case. He that would be the glory of the third temple, by coming to it, was so to the second temple, if he honoured it with his presence. The words, then, do well bear the sense of person; which moreover agrees perfectly with the context. “Be ye not troubled (says the prophet) that this house is in your eyes as nothing in comparison of the former. All its deficiencies shall be compensated hereafter, by His coming to it, whom your fathers desired to see, and did not see, under Solomon’s temple; and who shall therefore make this temple far more illustrious than that.” And thus the prophet himself seems to interpret his meaning; for, repeating the same political concussion, Hag 2:21-22. I will shake the heavens, &c. he tells them, that this was in order to make room for one, under the name of Zerubbabel, whom God would take, and make as a signet, or exalt to most high dignity, power, and trust, of which the seal was the instrument or sign in those days. Where the same revolution is spoken of, the same person was probably intended; the one passage is parallel to the other. So again, should the word peace, Hag 2:9 which God promises to give in this place, be understood of external peace and felicity, it will be hard to say how this was fulfilled, or could give the preference of the latter house to the former: for all the time under the second temple was troublesome and unquiet; far short of the halcyon days which they had enjoyed under Solomon: but, take it figuratively for a person, who publishes glad tidings of peace and salvation, whose doctrine and example tended to an universal peace throughout the world, and was always followed with internal and everlasting peace to those who obeyed him,and there is no comparison between the two temples; no more than between the outward tranquillity of a short reign, and the peace of God which exceeds all that we can desire.

II. Who this person should be, is the second consideration: and he may easily be known by the application of the same, or synonymous epithets, in other prophets. From Abraham’s days a seed was promised, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed. The promise was renewed to Isaac, afterwards to Jacob, who restricted it to one of Judah’s posterity, to Shiloh, who was foretold to be the gathering of the people, or, as the Hebrew word is rendered by the ancient versions and Jewish commentators, the expectation of the people. When God confined it to one family, of the tribe of Judah, to David’s seed, David foretels of him by the Spirit, that men, that all the families of the earth, as the Greek interpreters read, shall be blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed. This was not Solomon; for of the same rod of Jesse Isaiah prophesied, chap. Isa 11:10 that to him shall the Gentiles seek; or, as the LXX, in him shall they hopeand his peace shall be glorious: and again, where our translation hath it, the isles shall wait for his law, meaning the Messiah, ch. Isa 42:4 it is in the Greek, In his name shall the Gentiles hope. And as to Israel, it is implied that he was once their desire, till he appeared without the pomp and splendour of a prince, which they expected from him; and then they saw no beauty, that they should desire him, Isa 53:2. Hence it appears, that the expectation, the hope, the desire of all nations, and of Israel in particular, was a known description of some person, delivered from one prophet to another, and which, after the captivity, was fixed on the Messiah. Compare the present passage with Mal 3:1 in which the quality of the persons, and the place, so exactly agree, that one must think with R. Aben Ezra, that the same person is meant by both prophets; who is no other than the Lord Messiah, who in the days of Jesus Christ was usually termed, the hopethe blessed hopethe hope of Israelthe hope of the promise of the twelve tribesthe blessing of Abraham to the Gentiles, &c. 1Ti 1:1; Tit 2:13. Act 28:20; Act 26:7-8. Gal 3:14. Accordingly, the Jews about Christ’s time interpret this text in Haggai of the Messiah. Akiba, who might be born under the second temple, and was chief rabbi and counsellor to Barcochba in Trajan’s reign, understands it so; as does the Targum on Isa 4:2. Not to search after more authorities, we may acquiesce in the confession of Jarchi, who asserts that the ancients expounded this place of the Messiah. The other word peace is also a name of the Messiah; and as it includes in the notion thereof all kinds of happiness, it seems to be the reason why he is the desire of all nations; even because he shall be the blessing of all nations. However that be, this is one among the other lofty titles of the Messiah in Isa 9:6. Prince, Peace, as the words may be rendered in apposition. Of the governor that should come forth out of Bethlehem, it is said, Mic 5:2-5 that he should be the peace; and the Jew’s own paraphrase hereof is, The Messiah shall be our peace. Under this title the Jews pray for him in their liturgy, when they say, “Cause to come unto us, blessing and peace quickly.Give peace, good, blessing, &c. to us and thy people, &c.” Add to this, that the Messiah is spoken of in other places of Scripture by the name of the glory of the Lord,

Isa 40:5; Isa 60:1-2 and then nothing is wanting to prove, that the person whose coming shall make the latter house glorious must be the Messiah.

III. This interpretation is farther strengthened, thirdly, from the expectation that the Jews generally had of the Messiah’s coming before the end of the second temple, into which the person prophesied of by Haggai, was to come. To this purpose are several of their traditions: “The second temple shall continue to the age to come, and the days of the Messiah.” And, “on the day the temple was destroyed, the Messiah was born:” And to guard against the argument which may be formed against them from this concession, they have invented an idle story, that the Messiah was indeed born under the second temple; but is hidden at Rome, till God shall permit him to reveal himself. Very remarkable is the saying of Rabbi Jose, who lived at the destruction of the temple by Titus, and, grieving at the sight thereof, exclaimed, “Alas! the time of the Messiah is past.”

They never dreamed then of a third temple; much less did they infer it from Haggai, who says directly the contrary. Haggai’s temple is plainly the same that they then saw, and which was in their eyes as nothing; for he adds, for their comfort, I will fill this house with glorythis latter house-this place, with peace. There had been at that time but two houses: Solomon’s, which was the former, was no longer in being: Zerubbabel’s, which is the latter, was now building, unlike to the former in magnificence, and yet promised to exceed it in glory. Nothing can be plainer than that into this house the desire of all nations was to come; that while this temple was standing he was to appear in this place, and manifest forth his glory. Within this compass of time none else came, whom these titles fitted, besides Jesus Christ, in whom the Logos, or Word, tabernacled, or placed his Shechinah, and whose glory they beheld, as of the only begotten of the Father. Joh 1:14. See Bishop Chandler’s Defence, p. 71, &c. The reader will also find in Dr. Sharpe’s Sermon on the Rise and Fall of Jerusalem, p. 36 some good remarks on the subject.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

“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; (7) And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. (8) The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. (9) The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.”

The little while is spoken in reference to the Lord’s calculation of time, and not of ours. A thousand years in his sight are but as one day. It was now somewhat about five hundred years before Christ would openly tabernacle in substance of our flesh; and yet the Lord calls it but a little while! Think, Reader! of the eternity of his nature and essence, by those distinctions of character! And observe What is to introduce this glorious Shiloh; the Lord will shake all nations, yea, the very heavens, and the earth; meaning the raising up and throwing down kingdoms and powers; the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman monarchies, each were to minister, in their turn, and all to this one event. But, Reader! above all, do mark the blessed feature by which Christ is described; namely, the desire of all nations. And so he is to every poor sinner upon earth, to whom he is revealed. If he be not so, the reason is, because they know not their own wants, neither his suitability, and all-sufficient fulness, and grace, to supply. But in all nations, all climates, tongues, people, and languages, where sin is felt, and Christ made known, nothing but Christ can satisfy. And I beg the Reader to remark yet further, how contemptibly the Lord speaks of silver and gold. The first temple of Solomon had a profusion of gold and silver indeed. Whereas this second temple had but little ornaments in the days of Haggai. But what of that? The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. And so it was most eminently, when the Son of Cod in our nature entered it. I do not myself conceive, that the ancient Jews, who wept in the view of the second temple, did so on account of the want of things ornamental only. But there were matters, of an higher moment, in which it was defective. The Jews confess, that the second temple had none of the five signs which the first temple had; namely, 1st. the Ark, with the Mercy-Seat and Cherubim: 2dly. the Shechinah: 3dly. the Spirit of Prophecy: 4thly. the Urim and Thummim: and 5thly. the Holy Fire on the altar. But, in the presence of the Lord Jesus, they had more than all these; for , these were but the type. Christ the substance. So that nothing can be more decisive, in confirmation of this most blessed prophecy of Haggai, pointing to Christ, and in Christ being fulfilled. And he is indeed the whole peace of his people.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Hag 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, Heb 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. Col 1:14 ; Col 1:16 Joh 1:9 cf. Joh 8:12 Joh 1:11 cf. Act 3:13-15 . See those coherencies of sentences, Joh 9:3-4 ; Joh 11:4 ; Joh 12:39-40 , besides the apostle’s argument, Heb 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, Joh 1:14 . One with the Father in essence and power, Joh 10:30 ; Joh 10:38 ; Joh 14:23 Joh 14:2 . As having the incommunicable names and attributes of God, Joh 8:58 ; Joh 20:28 . Eternity, Joh 1:1 ; Joh 17:5 , infiniteness, Joh 3:18 , omniscience, Joh 2:24 ; Joh 21:22 Joh 21:3 . As doing the works of God, such as are creation, Joh 1:3 , conservation, Joh 5:17 , miracles, &c. 4. As taking to himself divine worship, Joh 9:38 ; Joh 20:28 ; Joh 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. Joh 12:41 Jas 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, Heb 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, Heb 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 Heb 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, Luk 10:18 , that is, from men’s hearts; and the saints set together in heavenly places, or privileges in Christ Jesus, Eph 2:6 . For he that hath the Son hath life, 1Jn 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, Hag 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,” Joh 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, Mat 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, Luk 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,” Psa 96:11-13 ; Psa 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, Psa 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,” Rev 6:2 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

saith = hath said.

once = first; as in Hag 1:1 with Hag 2:1. Hebrew. ‘chad = one of several. See note on Deu 6:4. There had been shakings before; but this one would be extreme and final. Quoted in Heb 12:26, Heb 12:27. Greek. hapax = once for all: i.e. first, before the fulfillment of the promise given in the clause which follows. It is feminine here, and cannot agree with “little” (one little, or a little) because me’at is masculine.

I will shake. See the Structure, below (Hag 2:21). Not “convert”; but shake violently, as in Psa 46:3; Psa 77:18. Jer 10:10, &c.

and. Note the Figure of speech Polysyndeton (App-6): emphasizing the universality of this last shaking, in contrast with all former shakings. It refers to the great tribulation (Mat 24:29, Mat 24:30). Compare Isa 13:13; Isa 24:18.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Yet: Hag 2:21, Hag 2:22, Heb 12:26-28

it is: Psa 37:10, Isa 10:25, Isa 29:17, Jer 51:33, Heb 10:37

and I: Isa 34:4, Jer 4:23-26, Eze 38:20, Joe 2:30-32, Joe 3:16, Mat 24:29, Mat 24:30, Mar 13:24-26, Luk 21:25-27, Act 2:19, Heb 12:26, Rev 6:12-17, Rev 8:5-12, Rev 11:9, Rev 6:2-17

Reciprocal: Lev 11:29 – creeping things that creep Job 9:6 – shaketh Psa 29:8 – shaketh Psa 60:2 – broken Isa 2:19 – when he Isa 13:13 – I will Isa 42:15 – General Jer 33:14 – General Eze 36:11 – will do Eze 38:19 – Surely Hos 8:10 – sorrow a little Amo 8:8 – the land Zec 4:7 – O great Mat 2:1 – Herod

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Hag 2:6. Following a practice we have before seen with the prophets, the Lord has Haggai to leap from a fortunate event in the history of fleshly Israel to one at spiritual Israel or the church. This and the following three verses deal with that subject and the imagery is drawn from the literal shaking of Mt. Sinal when the Mosaic system was given to the peopIe of Israel. After that shaking had subsided it left remaining the organIzed institution that was to serve the people through that dispensation. Now the Lord predicts that one more ATeat fha’lng vill occur that will affect the heavens and the earth.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Hag 2:6-7. Yet once Or, once more, , as the LXX. render it, whom St. Paul follows, Heb 12:26. The phrase implies such an alteration, or change of things, as should be permanent, and should not give place to any other, as the apostle there expounds it. The expression, says Bishop Newcome, has a clear sense, if understood of the evangelical age: for many political revolutions succeeded, as the conquest of Darius Codomanus, and the various fortunes of Alexanders successors; but only one great and final religious revolution; namely, a revolution, not introductory to, but consequent upon the coming of the Messiah; the change of the Mosaic economy for that of the gospel. A little while Though it was five hundred years from the time of the uttering of this prophecy to the coming of the Messiah, which was the event here intended, yet it might be called a short time, when compared with that which had elapsed from the creation to the giving of the law, or from the giving of the law to the return of the Jews from Babylon, and the erection of this second temple. And I will shake the heavens and the earth, &c. These and similar figurative expressions are often used in the prophetical Scriptures, to signify great commotions and changes in the world, whether political or religious. The political ones here intended began in the overthrow of the Persian monarchy by Alexander, within two centuries after this prediction, which event was followed by commotions, destructive wars and changes among his successors, till the Macedonian empire, which had overturned the Persian, with the several kingdoms into which it was divided, was itself subdued by the Roman. The expressions, the sea and the dry land, are added as a particular explication of what is meant by the general term earth, and signify only what is expressed without a figure in the next clause. I will shake all nations All nations were more or less involved in, and shaken by, the wars that overthrew the Persian kingdom, and still more in and by those that overturned the empire of the Greeks. Grotius explains this prophecy as being, in part, at least, accomplished by the extraordinary phenomena in the heavens, and on the earth, at the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ, and mission of the Holy Spirit. But certainly the other is the interpretation chiefly intended. And the Desire of all nations Christ, most desirable to all nations, and who was desired by all that knew their own misery, and his sufficiency to save them; who was to be the light of the Gentiles, as well as the glory of his people Israel: such a guide and director as the wise men among the heathen longed for; and whose combat was the expectation of the Jewish nation, and the completion of all the promises made to their fathers. And I will fill this house with glory A glory not consisting in the magnificence of its structure, its rich ornaments, or costly sacrifices, which would have been only a worldly glory; but a glory that was spiritual, heavenly, and divine.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2:6 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; {c} Yet once, it [is] a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry [land];

(c) He exhorts them to patience though they do not see as yet this temple so glorious as the Prophets had declared: for this should be accomplished in Christ, by whom all things should be renewed.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The basis of their confidence and lack of fear was a promise from Almighty Yahweh. He would do again in the future what He had done at the Exodus and at Mt. Sinai (Exo 19:16; Exo 19:18; Psa 68:8; Psa 77:16-18). Shaking the heavens and the earth describes an earthquake, which was an evidence of the Lord’s supernatural intervention (cf. Isa 2:12-21; Isa 13:13; Eze 38:20; Amo 8:8). This will occur when Christ returns to the earth (Joe 3:16; Mat 24:29-30).

The writer of Hebrews quoted this verse in Heb 12:26. He then added that we who are in Christ have an unshakable kingdom that will endure the coming cosmic earthquake (Heb 12:28-29). Haggai’s prophecy still awaits fulfillment.

"The New Testament writer sees in Haggai’s language an implicit contrast between the transitory nature of the old economy and the abiding permanence of the new economy that was initiated by the mission of Jesus." [Note: Taylor, p. 159.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)