ವ್ಯಾಖ್ಯಾನ ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾತ್ರ ಲಭ್ಯವಿದೆ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಅನುವಾದ ಪ್ರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿದೆ.
Haggai 2 — The Desire of All Nations Shall Come
Less than a month later, Haggai brings four more messages. The older men who remembered Solomon's temple weep at this smaller one. The Lord encourages: my Spirit remaineth among you, fear not. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. Holiness is not transferred by touch; defilement is. The Lord will shake the nations; Zerubbabel is chosen as a signet.
“The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former.”
— Haggai 2:9
- v.1-9 Be strong; the desire of nations shall come
- v.10-14 Holiness is not transferred; defilement is
- v.15-19 From this day will I bless you
- v.20-23 Zerubbabel as a signet ring
Be strong repeated three times — to the governor, the high priest, and the people. Civil leader, spiritual leader, and the populace — all called to the same courage.
And work. Faith is not divorced from labor. The strength is given for the working, not for spiritual reverie. The promise I am with you applies to the swinging of hammers and the moving of stones.
The desire of all nations. Most commentators see this as messianic — Christ Himself, the one whom all nations rightly desire even when they do not know it. Hebrews 12:26-29 quotes this verse of the final shaking before the kingdom that cannot be shaken.
The post-exilic temple was eventually expanded by Herod into a magnificent structure. But its true glory was not architectural — it was the day a Galilean carpenter walked through its courts.
The glory of the second temple greater than the first. Solomon's was richer in gold; the second was richer in the One who would enter it. Christ's presence in the second temple — preaching, healing, cleansing it — gave it the glory the first never had.
In this place will I give peace. Christ would give peace in this very place. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you (John 14:27). The promise of Haggai was fulfilled by the Prince of Peace standing in the courts.
A teaching by hypothetical question. Holiness does not spread by contact. Touching a holy object does not make the toucher or the second object holy.
The next verse establishes the opposite: defilement does spread by contact. A profound moral principle. Goodness must be cultivated; evil propagates by mere proximity. The lesson: be careful what you touch and who touches you. The flesh corrupts more easily than the spirit purifies.
As a signet. A signet ring carried the king's authority. To make Zerubbabel a signet was to invest him with royal authority. Significantly, Zerubbabel's grandfather Jeconiah had been compared to a signet ring torn off by God (Jeremiah 22:24). The curse is reversed in his grandson.
Zerubbabel stands in the genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1:12-13; Luke 3:27). The royal line preserved through exile, now restored as God's signet, runs forward to the King of kings whose authority is the final signet on the universe.
Compare your work for God against the romantic ideal of what it ought to look like, and you will weep like the older men in Ezra 3. Compare it against what God promises to do through it, and you will work like Zerubbabel. The glory of the latter house is greater. Build what is in front of you. The greater glory is God's to add.
The desire of all nations shall come. Christ Himself. The whole prophecy strains toward Him. He walked through this rebuilt temple. He gave it the glory the first temple never had. He spoke peace in its courts. He drove out money-changers and healed lepers under its colonnades. Haggai 2:7-9 is one of the great messianic promises, fulfilled five centuries later by the carpenter from Nazareth.
The older builders had seen Solomon's temple before its destruction. The new building seemed pitiful by comparison (Ezra 3:12-13 records the weeping). The temptation was discouragement.
The principle reaches into every age. What seems small to the human eye may be glorious to God. Zechariah 4:10 — who hath despised the day of small things?