Obedience Requires Strength but Results in Blessing

God will bring His glory. That purpose cannot be slowed or stopped. If there is one message that is constant throughout Scripture, it is that God’s purposes cannot be halted. Verses 6-9 of Haggai chapter 2 are a consistent reminder of that fact. We are told here that God will assert His sovereignty, that He will provide for the completion of His purposes, and that He will ultimately deliver an even greater glory than the glory of the temple they would rebuild.

Verse 6 speaks of God shaking everything that is. This is a reference to the authority of God, the sovereignty of God. A. W. Pink, in his great work The Sovereignty of God, defined God’s sovereignty this way: “What do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God” (The Sovereignty of God, 11). The shaking that is mentioned here is a rather colorful way of describing the fact that God is over every created thing. It was a reminder to the nation of Israel that His word was to be obeyed. It was also a reminder that He would be able to provide the strength necessary to accomplish the task. Finally, it was a reminder that He would provide the necessary resources to rebuild the temple.

In verses 7-8 Haggai continues on the sovereignty theme, specifically declaring God’s ability to provide the financial resources necessary to accomplish the task. This is an important and needed lesson to an Israelite people who were surely frustrated over the lack of provision that they had experienced, which God previously told them was due to their disobedience. We see this promised provision fulfilled by King Darius, the ruler of the Persians, in Ezra 6:8:

I hereby issue a decree concerning what you must do, so that the elders of the Jews can rebuild the house of God: The cost is to be paid in full to these men out of the royal revenues from the taxes of the region west of the Euphrates River, so that the work will not stop.

Not only would God provide the necessary resources, but He would do it without costing the Israelites anything at all. They were simply called to be obedient, and God would provide the means. This is an important lesson for us today, as we often struggle and resist God’s call to obedience due to our lack of faith in His provision. God is always enough.

Finally, we see the capstone of these few verses, and ultimately the capstone of the entire book. Not only would God provide and would the Israelites rebuild the temple, but God would eventually accomplish a greater work by providing a greater temple. God promises that the “final glory” would be “greater than the first.” He also goes on to promise that He will provide peace through the final temple. So what is this statement referring to? It is a Messianic promise. It is a promise of Jesus to come. In fact, in the gospel of Matthew Jesus Himself would declare that He was greater than the temple: “But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here!” (Matt 12:6). Jesus would also refer to Himself as a type of a temple in John’s gospel: “Jesus answered, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and I will raise it up in three days’” (John 2:19). Jesus is the greater temple, and God was using the rebuilding of this temple, and the hope contained within it, to point to Jesus and the peace He would bring. In fact, He specifically describes this as shalom in the text, which means “peace.” His promised presence would bring them peace, although only temporarily. No, it is not final, but there is One coming who can provide lasting and complete peace. This verse declares that Jesus is coming.