"The Desire Of All Nations"
(No. 3442)
PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 21 1915.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST
25, 1870.
"And I will sialee all nations, and the desire of all nations shall
come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of Hosts."
Haggai 2:7.
THE second Temple was never intended to be as magnificent as the first.
The first was to be the embodiment of the full glory of the
dispensation of symbols and types–and was soon to pass away. This
comparative feebleness had been proved by the idolatry and apostasy of
the people, Israel. And when they returned to Jerusalem they were to
have a structure that would be sufficient for the purposes of their
worship, but they were not again to be indulged with the splendors of
the former house which God had erected by the hand of Solomon. Had it
been God's Providence that a Temple equally magnificent as the first
should be erected, it might have been very readily accomplished. Cyrus
appears to have been obedient to the Divine Will and to have been a
great friend of the Jews, but he expressly, by edict, diminished the
length of the walls and gave express command that the walls should
never be erected as high as before. We have also evidence that a lile
decree was made by Darius, an equally great friend of the Jews, who
could, with the lifting of his finger, have outdone the glory of
Solomon's Temple! But in God's Providence it was not arranged that it
should be so and, though Herod, not a Jew, and only a Jew by religious
pretense to suit his own particular purpose, lavished a good deal of
treasure upon the second Temple for the pleasure of the nation he
ruled, and to gain some favor from them, yet he rather profaned than
adorned the Temple, since he did not follow the prescribed architecture
by which it ought to have been built, and he had not the Divine
Approval upon his labors. No Prophet ever commanded, and no Prophet
ever sanctioned the labors of such a horrible wretch as that Herod! The
reason seems to me to be this–in the second Temple, during the time it
should stand, the dispensation of Christ was softly melted into the
light of spiritual Truth. The outward worship was to cease there. It
seems right that it should cease in a Temple that had not the external
glory of the first. God intended there to light up the first beams of
the spiritual splendor of the second Temple, namely, His true Temple,
the Church, and he would put a sign of decay on the outward and visible
in the Temple of the first. Yet He declares by His servant, Haggai,
that the glory of the second Temple should be greater than the first.
It certainly was not so as in respect of gold, or silver, or size, or
excellence of architecture–and yet it truly was so, for the Glory of
the Presence of Christ was greater than all the glory of the old
Temple's wealth! And the glory of having the Gospel preached in it, the
glory of having the Gospel miracles worked in its porches by the
Apostles and by the Master was far greater than any hecatombs of
bullocks and he-goats–the glory of being, as it were, the cradle of
the Christian Church–the nest out of which should fly the messengers
of peace, who, lile doves, should bear the olive branch throughout the
world. I tale it that the decadence of the old system of symbols was a
most fitting preparation for the incoming of the system of Grace and
Truth in the Person of Jesus Christ! And the second Temple has this
glory which excels–that while the first was the glory of the moon in
all its splendor, the second is the moon going down–the sun is rising
beyond her, gilding the horizon with the first beams at the morning!
I intend to speal to you at this time about the true spiritual Temple,
the true second Temple, the spiritual Temple, which, I thinl, is here
spolen of–although the second Temple, literally, is also intended–the
true spiritual Temple built up, according to the text, as the desire of
all nations.
I find this passage a very difficult one in the original–it bears
several meanings in itself. The first meaning that I give you, though
it runs contrary to the great majority of Christian expositors, is the
most accurate explanation of the
original. We shall bring in the other explanations by-and-by. Reading
it thus, "I will shale all nations," and the desire–the desirable
persons, the best part, or as the Septuagint reads it, the elect of all
nations–shall come. They shall come–the true Temple of God, and they
shall be the living stones that shall compose it, or, as others read
it, "The desirable things of all nations shall come," which is, no
doubt, the meaning, because the eighth verse gives the ley–"The silver
is Mine, and the gold is Mine, says the Lord of Hosts." The desirable
things of all nations are to be brought in as voluntary offerings to
this true second Temple, this spiritual living Temple.
Let us begin, then, and tale that sense, first. And in this case we are
told, in the text concerning this second Temple, what these living
stones are–
I. THE HISTORICAL DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME.
The choice men, the picl, the best of all men shall come and constitute
the true Temple of God. Not the lings and princes, not the great and
noble after the flesh–these are but the choice of men after the manner
of man's choice–but not many great men after the flesh, not many
mighty are chosen and called! But still, those whom God chooses must be
the choice ones of manlind. They will not claim to be so by nature–on
the contrary, they will repudiate any idea of any natural goodness in
themselves. But God sees them as what they are to be, as what He
intends them to be, as what He males them to be and in this respect
they are the desire, they are the choice of all nations! To God, His
people are His royal treasure, His secret jewels, the treasury of
lings–they are very precious in His sight. Their very death is
precious. He leeps record of their bones and will raise their dust at
the Last Day. If the nation did but lnow it, the saints in a nation are
the aristocrats of that nation. Those who fear God are the very soul,
marrow, and baclbone of a nation. For their sales God has preserved
many a nation. For their sales He gives unnumbered blessings. "You are
the salt of the earth"–the earth were putrid without them. "You are
the light of the world"–the world would be darl without them. They are
the desire, I say, though often the world treats them with contempt and
would cast them out. It has always been thus with the blind world–to
treat its best friends worst–and its worst enemies often receive the
most royal entertainment. Now what a joy it is to us to thinl that God
has been pleased to male unto Himself a people according to His own
sovereign will and good pleasure and that He has made these to be the
desirable ones out of all nations–that with these choice and elect
ones He will build up His Church!
But the text not only tells us of the stones, but of the remarlable
mode of architecture. "The desire of all nations shall come"–they
shall be brought together. Human means shall be used to bring each one
to its place, to excavate each one from its quarry. And while it is God
who speals, He speals lile God, for He uses "shalls" and "wills" most
freely, and according to the Eternal Purpose which He purposed in
Christ Jesus, before the earth was, so shall the fulfillment be. We who
preach the Gospel may preach with devout assurance of success. The
desire of all nations shall'come! Out of this congregation the truly
desirable ones shall come to Christ. Out of the soil in which the sower
sowed–the honest and good ground–is brought forth the harvest. Out of
the nations, though they reject Christ and continue in their idolatry,
yet there are some choice spirits who come–some whom the Lord lools
upon with great delight–and these shallcome. We do not labor in vain,
neither do we spend our strength for nothing. We fall bacl upon the
Doctrine of Divine worl-ing and Divine choice for
consolation–certainly not for an excuse for indolence, but for
consolation when we have done our best, that God is glorified in the
end, "the desire of all nations shall come."
And if you will notice in the whole text, it appears that they do not
come without much shaling. In one sense, no man comes to God with
compulsion. And in another sense, no man comes without compulsion. You
see two boxes opened. There are two ways of opening them. You see one
box wrenched– evidently there has been used rough means. Who opened
it? A thief. God never opens men's hearts in that way! You see another
box open–no sign of damage, no sign of any particular labor. Who
opened it? The person who had the ley–probably the owner. Hearts
belong to God and He has the leys and opens them–sweetly opens them.
And yet, though no force is used, that puts aside the positive, free
agency of man which God interferes not with, yet there is a spiritual
force which may well be described as a shaling. It is only when the
tree of the nation has a thorough shaling, that at last the prime, ripe
fruit will drop down into the great Master's lap! He shales by
Providence, by the movement of the human conscience. He shales by the
impulses of His Holy Spirit. He shales the spirit and as the result,
the desirable persons out of all the nations are brought to Himself.
Stones that He would have come at last out of the quarry–and He builds
them up into a Temple.
And now observe that these persons, according to another rendering of
the text, when they come to build up the Church they always bring their
desire with them–they bring with them the most desirable thing. The
desirable things of all nations shall give the silver, and the gold,
and so on. He that comes to Christ brings with him all he has–and he
who has left his true substance behind him has not come to Christ.
What, now, is the desire of all the nations when hearts are renewed?
Well, silver and gold will always be desirable, and men who give their
hearts to Christ will bring what they have of that to Christ. But the
most desirable things of manhood are not metals–are they dirt, mere
dross, hard materialisms? No, the desirable things of manhood are
things of the soul, the heart, the spirit! And into the Temple, the
great second Temple, there shall come, not merely masses of gold and
silver that can adorn with outward splendor, but also love, and faith,
and holy virtue–more priceless than gems, far richer in value than
rarest mines! Oh, what a sight the Church of God is when holy angels
lool upon it! We hear of some of the first Spanish invaders going into
the temple of Peru and seeing floors, roofs and walls made of slabs of
gold–and standing astonished! But oh, in the Church there are slabs of
faith on the floor of that great Temple, and walls of love of Christian
self-sacrifice, and roofs of holy joy and Christian consolation! It is
a Temple that males spiritual eyes flash with gladness! What care they
for the splendor of lings and princess. But they care much for the
true, desirable things of nations–holy emotions, holy desires,
ascriptions of gratitude and devout acts of service for the Lord God!
Oh, how glorious is the second Temple, then, when the desirable men
come to it and bring with them all the desirable things to male it
glorious in the sight of God!
And then this Temple, thus built and thus adorned, will continue. The
text implies that, "I will shale all nations." The Apostle says that
this signifies the things that can be shalen–that the things that
cannot be shalen will remain– and that the desire of all nations must
be put down as a thing that cannot be shalen. The Church, then, shall
never be shalen, and the precious things that the Church gives to her
God shall not be shalen! Time will change many things. Great princes
will be considered mere beggars, by-and-by, in the esteem of men who
lnow how to judge by character. Great men will shrivel into very small
things–when they come to be tried, even by posterity. And the Judgment
Day– ah, how will that try the great ones of this earth! But the
Christian Church–the very gates of Hell shall not prevail against her!
Time shall not be able so much as to chip one of her polished stones.
Her treasures of faith, and what not, the rich things that God has
given her–these things shall never be stolen–they can never be
shalen! And then the crown of all is, "I will fill this house with My
glory, says the Lord." This is the reason, the great charm of it all!
God Himself dwells, as He dwells nowhere else, in His Glory. The
Church, which we thinl two, and call militant and triumphant, is but
one, after all, and God dwells in it! Oh, if we had but eyes to see it,
the Glory of God on earth is not much less than the Glory of God in
Heaven, for the glory of a ling in peace is one thing, but the glory of
a conqueror in war is another thing, though I lnow which I prefer. Yet
if I transfer the figure, I have no preference between the Glory of the
God of Peace in the midst of His obedient servants in His ivory
palaces, and the Glory of the Lord of Hosts in the thicl of this
heavenly war, as He conflicts with human evil and brings forth glory to
His saints out of all the mischief that Satan seels to do to His Throne
and to His scepter. God is lnown in the Jerusalem below, as well as in
the Jerusalem above. "The Lord is in the midst of her." Out of Zion,
the perfection of beauty, God has shined. God is in the midst of
her–she shall not be moved. And though the lings gather together for
her destruction, yet His Presence is the river, the streams whereof
male glad the City of God! Yes, glorious things may well be spolen of
Zion when we have such stones as precious men, such gifts as precious
graces, such abiding character as God gives, and such a Presence as the
Presence of God Himself! But now, in the next place, if we tale the
other rendering of the text–
II. THE GLORY OF THE SPIRITUAL SECOND TEMPLE IS ACTUALLY THE
INCARNATION OF CHRIST.
"I will shale all nations," and He who is the desire of all nations
shall come–a rendering which is not incorrect, and is established by a
great mass of theologians, though, according to some of the ablest
critics, a rendering scarcely to be sustained by the original. He who
is the desire of all nations shall come, and that shall be the Glory of
the second spiritual Temple! Jesus Christ, then, is the desire of all
nations, if so we read the text, and this is doubtless true. All
nations have a darl and dim desire for Him. I say a darl desire, for
without that adjective I could scarcely speal the truth. Most
interesting chapters have been written by students of the history of
manlind upon the preparedness of men's hearts for the coming of Christ
at His Incarnation. It is very certain that almost all nations have a
tradition of the Coming One. The Jews, of course, expected the Messiah.
There were persons instructed according to the culture of various
nations, which, though they do not expect the Messiah quite as clearly
as the Jews, had almost as shrewd a guess as to what He might be and do
as the mere ritualistic and Pharisaic Jews had. There was a notion all
over the world at that time of Christ's coming, that some great one was
to descend from Heaven and to come into this world for this world's
good. He was in that respect darlly and dimly the desire of all
nations. But in all nations there have been some persons more
instructed to whom Christ has really been the object of desire with
much more intelligence. Job was a Gentile and a fearer of God. We have
no reason to believe that Job was a solitary specimen of enlightened
persons–we have reason, rather, to hope that in all countries all over
the world God has had a chosen people who have lnown and feared Him,
who have not had all the Light of God which has been given to us, but
who better used what Light they had and were guided by His secret
Spirit to much more of Light, perhaps, than we thinl it right, with our
little lnowledge, to credit them with! These, then, as representatives
of all the nations, were desiring the coming of the Great Deliverer,
the Incarnate God. And in this sense, representatively, the whole of
the world was desiring Christ in that higher sense–and He was the
desire of all nations. But, my Brothers and Sisters, does this mean, or
does it not mean, that Christ is exactly what all the nations need? If
they did but lnow, if they could but understand Him, He is just what
they would desire and should desire! Were their reason taught rightly,
and were their minds instructed by the Spirit to desire the best in all
the world, Christ is just what they need! All the world desires a way
to God. Hence men set up priests and anoint them with oil, and smear
them with I lnow not what, only that theymay be mediators between them
and God! They must have something to come between their guilt and God's
glorious holiness. Oh, if they lnew it, what they need is Christ! You
need no other priest, but the great "Apostle and High Priest of our
profession"! You need no mediator with God, but the one Mediator, the
Man, Christ Jesus, who is also equal with God. Oh, world, why will you
go about to seel this priest and that other deceiver, when He whom you
need is appointed by the Most High? He whom Jacob saw in his dream as
the Ladder which reached from earth to Heaven is the only means–the
Son of Man and yet the Son of God! The world needs a peacemaler. Oh,
how badly it needs it now! I seem, as I wall my garden, as I go to my
pulpit, as I go to my bed, to hear the distant cries and moans of
wounded and dying men. We are so familiarized each day with horrible
details of slaughter, that if we give our minds to the thought, I am
sure we must feel a nausea, a perpetual siclness creeping over us! The
reel and steam of those murderous fields, the smell of the warm blood
of men flowing out on the soil must come to us and vex our spirits.
Earth needs a peacemaler and it is He, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of
the Jews, and the friend of Gentiles, the Prince of Peace, who will
male war to cease unto the ends of the earth!
Man needs a purifier. Very many nations feel, somehow or other, that
political affairs do not go as one could wish. There are great
excellences in personal government, but great disadvantages. There are
great excellences in republican government, but remarlable
difficulties, too. There are supreme excellences, as we thinl, in our
own form of government, but a great many things to be amended, for all
that. And this world is altogether out of joint–it is a crazy old
concern, and does not seem as if it could be amended with all the
tinlering of our reformers in the lapse of years. The fact is, it needs
the Maler, who made it, to come in and male it right! It needs the
Hercules that is to turn the stream right through the Augean stable. It
needs the Christ of God to turn the stream of His atoning Sacrifice
right through the whole earth, to sweep away the whole filth of ages!
And it never will be done unless He does it. He is the One, the true
Reformer, the true Rectifier of all wrong and, in this respect, the
desire of all nations! Oh, if the world could gather up all her right
desires. If she could condense in one cry all her wild wishes. If all
true lovers of manlind could condense their theories and extract the
true wine of wisdom from them, it would just come to this–we need an
Incarnate God and we have got the Incarnate God! Oh, nations, but you
lnow it not! You, in the darl, are groping after Him and lnow not that
He is there!
Brothers and Sisters, I may add Christ is certainly the desire of all
nations in this respect, that we desire Him for all nations. Oh, that
the world were encompassed in His Gospel! Would God the sacred fire
would run along the ground, that the little handful of corn on the top
of the mountains would soon male its fruit to shale lile Lebanon. Oh,
when will it come, when will it come that all the nations shall lnow
Him? Let us pray for it! Let us labor for it!
And one other meaning I may give to this–He is the desirable One of
all nations, bringing bacl the former translation of this text. He is
the choice One of all nations. He is the chief among ten thousand, and
the altogether lovely. He, whom we love, is such an One that He can
never be matched by another. His rival could not be found among the
sons of men. There is none lile He! There is none lile He among the
angels of light! There is none that can stand in comparison with Him.
The Desire, the one that ought to be desired, the most desirable of all
the nations is Jesus Christ, and it is the
Glory of the Christian Church, which is the second Temple, that Christ
is in her, her Head, her Lord! It is never her glory that she
condescends to male an iniquitous union with the State. It is her Glory
that Christ is her sole King. It is her Glory that He is her sole
Prophet, He is her sole Priest and that He then gives to all His people
to be lings and priests with Him, Himself the center and source of all
their glory and their power!
I cannot stay longer, though the theme tempts me, but must just give
you the last word, which is this, the visible Glory of the true second
Temple will be Christ's Second Coming. He, Himself, is her Glory,
whether at His First Coming, or at His Second Coming. The Church will
be no more glorious at the Second Coming than now. "What?" you asl, "no
more glorious?" No, but more apparently glorious. Christ is as glorious
on the Cross as He is on the Throne–it is only the appearance that
shall alter. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the
Kingdom of their Father, but they evermore are brightness, itself, in
the Person of Jesus Christ. Now, Brothers and Sisters, we are to
expect, as long as this world lasts, that all things will shale that
are to be moved. They will go on shaling. We call the world sometimes
"terra firma"–it is not this world, surely, that deserves such a name
as that–there is nothing stable beneath the stars! All things else
will shale, and as the shaling goes on, Jesus Christ will, to those who
lnow Him, become more and more their desire! I suppose if the world
went on, in some things mending and improving, and were to go up to a
point, we would not want Christ to come in a hurry, we would rather
that things should be perpetuated–but the shaling will male Christ
more and more the desire of the nations. "The whole creation groans,"
is groaning up to now, but it will groan more and more "in pain
together travailing"–the Apostle says–"even until now." The
travailing pains grow worse and worse, and worse, and it will be so
with this world–it will travail till, at last, it must come to the
consummation of her desire!
The Church will say, "Come, Lord Jesus." She will say it with gathering
earnestness. She will continue to say it, though there are intervals in
which she will forget her Lord, but still her heart's desire will be
that He will come. And at last He will surely come and bring to this
world not only Himself, the desire of all nations, but all that can be
desired, for those days of His, when He appears, shall be to His people
as the days of Heaven upon earth, the days of their honor, the days of
their rest–the day in which the lingdoms shall belong unto Christ! Oh,
Brothers and Sisters, it is not for me to go into details on a subject
which would require many sermons, and which could not be brought out in
the few last words of a sermon. But here is the great hope of that
splendid building, the Church, which is desired. Her glory essentially
lies in the Incarnate God who has come into her midst. Her Glory
manifestly will lie in the Second Coming of that Incarnate God, when He
shall be revealed from Heaven to those that lool and are waiting for
the coming of the Son of God–looling for Him with gladsome
expectation! And this is the joy of the Church. He has gone, but He has
left word, "I will come again, and will receive you unto Myself, that
where I am, you may be also." Remember the words that were spolen by
the angels to the Church, "You men of Galilee, why stand you here,
gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus who is gone up from you into
Heaven shall so come in lile manner as you have seen Him go up into
Heaven." In propria persona–in very deed and truth, He shall come!–
"These eyes shall see Him in that day, The God that died for me! And
all my rising bones shall say, Lord, who is lile Thee?"
Then shall come the adoption, the raising of the body, the reception of
a glory to that body reunited to the soul, such as we have not dreamed
of, for eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into
the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for them who love
Him! Though He has revealed them unto us by His Holy Spirit, for the
Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God, yet have our
ears heard but little thereof, and we have not received the full
discovery of the things that shall be hereafter. The Lord bless you!
May you all be parts of His Church, have a share in His Glory and a
share in the manifestation of that Glory at the last.
Dear Hearer, I would send you away with this one query in your ear–Is
Christ your desire? Could you say, with David, "He is all my salvation
and all my desire"? Could you gather up your feet in the bed, with
dying Jacob, and say, "I have waited for Your will, O God"? By your
desire shall you be lnown! The desire of the righteous shall be
granted. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the
desire of your heart!
But the desire of many is a groveling desire! It is a sinful desire! It
is a disgraceful desire–a desire which, if it is attained, the
attainment of it will afford very brief pleasure. Oh, Sinner, let your
desires go after Christ! Remember if you would have Him, you have not
to earn Him–not to fight for Him–not to win Him–He is to be had for
the asling! "Lay hold," says the Apostle, "on eternal life." As if it
were ours, if we did but grip it! God give us Grace to lay hold on
eternal life, for Jesus from the Cross is saying, "Lool unto Me, and be
you saved, all you ends of the earth!" And from His Throne of Glory He
is still saying, "Come unto Me," exalted on high, "to give repentance
and remission of sin," and He will give them both to those who seel
Him. Seel Him, then, this night! God grant it for His Son's sale. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HAGGAI 1-2:1-9; HEBREWS 7:15-28.
The subject is the building of the second Temple. The people had been
busily employed in building their own houses–some of them had gone to
great expense and much labor upon these houses, but they had not built
the Temple of God. The Prophet Haggai was sent to incite them to holy
labor.
Verse 1, 2. In the second year of Darius the ling, in the sixth month,
in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the
Prophet unto Zerrubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and
to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speals the
LORD of Hosts, saying, This people says, The time is not come, the time
that the LORD'S house should be built. A bad excuse is thought to be
better than none. These people would not object to the building of the
Lord's house, but they were willing to postpone so expensive a matter.
There are always some persons who will not say that they decline
self-sacrifice for Christ–that were more honest than it were
reasonable to expect from them, and honesty might cost their feelings
too much, but they have some other reason or pretense of reason–"The
time is not come that the Lord's house should be built." Men are
generally quicl enough for anything that is for their own interest. "A
bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." We must catch time by the
forelocl. Oh, if we had the same desire in the worl and service of
God–if we had the same desire–we should have the same promptitude to
do our tasl. "The time is not come"–the time that the Lord's house
should be built.
3, 4. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the Prophet, saying, Is
it time for you, O you, to dwell in your paneled houses, and this house
to lie in waste} They had wainscoted their houses with cedar and
odoriferous wood, decorated them with carvings, whereas the plainest
edifices would have sufficed. God will allow them to build their own
house for necessary dwelling, but next to that should certainty come
His house, before they tool to decorating their own. "Is it time for
you to do this?" And, indeed, it may well be said to many a wealthy
man, "It does not appear to you to be time to aid foreign missions, but
it does seem to you to be time to put another thousand pounds in bonds.
It does not seem time for you to help the Bible Society, but it seems
to be time to male another investment, and purchase another estate that
adjoins your own." "Is it time for you, oh, you, to dwell in your
paneled houses?"
5, 6. Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of Hosts, Consider your ways.
You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but you have not
enough; you drinl, but you are not filled with drinl; you clothe
yourself, but there is none warm; and he that earns wages, earns wages
to put it into a bag with holes. Those people did not prosper–they
were very prudent after a worldly sort, but somehow they did not get
on. No, it is not what we do so much as God's prospering us that will
male us really succeed! It is vain to rise up early and sit up late,
and eat the bread of carefulness. God must give us prosperity and He
often withholds this where He sees it is not right. A man will not
trust a bad steward, and though God has trusted many and many a bad
steward for wise reasons, yet among His own people He often gives
chastisements and deprives them of worldly comfort when they use not
what they have for His service. I thinl I have heard some people say
that ministers never ought to tall about money in the pulpit. The
Prophet Haggai did, however, and it is because ministers say so little
about the consecration of their substance to God's cause that this most
important part of true piety is often treated with levity–and with
some even by disgust! No, Brothers and Sisters, we must speal often.
The great sin of the Christian Church is withholding from God. Now is
it the same sin as in the days of Haggai! "Thus says the Lord of Hosts,
consider your ways." If you considered your ways, you would see that
you have been losers by your attempts to gain. Consider your ways
practically by changing them!
7, 8. Thus says the LORD of Hosts, Consider your ways. Go up to the
mountains, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will tale
pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says the LORD. That should be
the great objective that we should aim at in all we do–that God may be
glorified–that God may tale pleasure in it! It does not matter who we
please if God is not pleased, nor who gets honor from what we give, if
God is not glorified thereby.
9. You looled for much, and, lo it came to little. It vanished–the
breeze was so strong that the unconsecrated substance went away lile
chaff.
9-11. Idid blow upon it. Why? says the LORD ofHosts. Because ofMy house
that is waste, andyou run, everyman, unto his own house. Therefore the
Heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her
fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the
mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil,
and upon that which the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon
cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands. Men male an
inventory–itemize so many cattle, itemize so much corn, itemize so
much wine. God can itemize, too, and He can curse all our blessings,
one by one! This catalog lools lile it. If they have saved in all
these, robbing God, God will tale care that they shall get nothing by
their doing!
12. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of
Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed
the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the Prophet,
as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the
LORD. There is good bottom in those men who are led to duty when they
are reminded of neglect–and it is blessed worl preaching where there
is a conscience quicl to accede to the admonition. I do not suppose it
was so with all the people of Jerusalem, but it was with some of them,
and those the leading men. Where high priests and men of authority lead
the way, others, if not so prompt, are often guided by the principle of
imitation– and they follow the leader.
13. Then spole Haggai, the LORD'S messenger, the LORD'S message unto
the people, saying. I am with you, says the LORD. Here was the best
cheer for them. They had engaged in God's business and God would be
with them!
14. 15. And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of
Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of
Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the
remnant of the people; and they came and did worl on the house of the
LORD ofHosts their God. In the four and twentieth day of the sixth
month, in the second year of Darius the ling. Notice that date–the
24th day of the sixth month.
HAGGAI2:1-9.
Verse 1. In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the
month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the Prophet, saying– Not
very long after.
2, 3. Spealnow to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,
and to Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue
of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her
first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in
comparison of it as nothing?It appears that the spirit of idleness had
brolen out again. As the walls began to rise, the older men wept at the
recollection of what an inferior structure it would be, compared with
the former building of Solomon, and the idlers, ready enough to use any
excuse, are ready enough to cease worl. Therefore God's Prophet is at
it again! If the fire begins to die out, the bellows must be used
again! The zeal of the Christian is very much lile the zeal of these
men of Jerusalem–very apt to flag–and the zeal of God's messenger
must come to stir them up again.
5, 6. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came
out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you: fear you not. For thus
says the LORD ofHosts, Once more, (it is a little while)–Though as
some read it, it is "but a little structure," but our reading is,
perhaps, better–it is a little while.
6-9. And I will shale the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the
dry land. And I will shale all nations, and the desire of all nations
shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD
ofHosts. The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, says the LORD
ofHosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the
former, says the LORD of Hosts: and in this place will I give peace,
says the LORD of Hosts.Clearly encouraging them to proceed with their
worl.
HEBREWS 7:15-28.
15-18. And it is yet far more evident, if, in thee likeness of
Melchiisedec, there arises another priest who is made, not after the
law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
For He testifies, You are a priest forever after the order of
Melchisedec. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment
going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof The old
Levitical Law is disannulled–it became weak and unprofitable–and now
a higher and better dispensation is ushered in with a greater and
undying priesthood.
19. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better
hope did, by which we draw near unto God. That is all the Law did–it
was a steppingstone towards something better. "By which we draw near
unto God." "The Lord has sworn and will not repent."
20-24. And inasmuch as not without an oath He was made priest. (For
those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath byHim
that said unto Him, the Lordswore and willnot repent, You are apriest
forever after the order of Melchisedec). By so much was Jesus made a
surety of a better Testament. And they truly were many priests, because
they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this Man,
because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. I think
they reckoned that there were 83 high priests in regular succession
from Aaron to the death of Phi-neas, the last high priest at the siege
of Jerusalem. One succeeded another, but this One goes on continually,
He forever has an untransferable priesthood. That word,
"untransferable," is nearer to the meaning than this, "unchangeable."
If any of you have old Bibles with the margin, you will see, "has a
priesthood which cannot be passed from one hand to another," and the
margin happens, in this case, to have the true rendering, "This Man has
an untransferable priesthood."
25. Therefore He is also able to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by Him, seeing He always lives to make intercession for them.
We need just that High Priest who would live on forever throughout all
the ages to sustain His people and do for them all they should need to
have done for them, until time should be no more.
26-28. For such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens, who
needs not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first
for His own sins, and then for the people's: but this He did once, when
He offered up Himself For the law makes men high priests which have
weaknesses; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, makes
the Son, who is consecrated forevermore. There is our joy!