April 6, 2025 - Haggai 2:7-9 - "Christ the Desire of All Nations"

Haggai 2:7-9

"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. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. 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."

When Haggai was writing this, the second temple had already been built. Yet he declared, “And I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.”  What, then, do you suppose he meant by "filling that house with glory?" The people that were round about the temple that day did not know that, on that day, the Glory of the Lord had once again entered into the temple—in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Glory of the Lord.

Just as the glory of God had departed eastward in the days of Ezekiel, so it would return from the east unto the temple (Ezekiel 43:4). And in that return, the Lord would purify the nation—spiritual Israel. Following their restoration from exile, the remnant, according to the election of grace (Romans 11:5)—would no more practice harlotry, that is, idolatry. This return would mark a new beginning with a cleansed people, through Christ’s redeeming work, not marred by the sins which had caused their fathers to be cast into exile in the first place (Hebrews 8:8-13).

The historical context of Haggai 2 is closely tied to the rebuilding of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. Haggai ministered in the days of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ezekiel. Although we do not know how long Haggai lived, he had likely died before these things fully came to pass, around the sixth century B.C. when the Babylonians had conquered the kingdom of Judah. There stood the temple, and from there many Jews were carried away to Babylon. Haggai and Zechariah played a pivotal role in stirring up the returning exiles to resume the work on the temple, for the construction had ceased. Haggai specifically addressed the people of Judah who were engaged in rebuilding. This chapter emphasizes the Glory of the new temple, and yet assures the people that a greater Glory was yet to come—one that would far surpass the splendor of the former house built by Solomon. This word was meant to inspire hope and encourage perseverance—not merely in their labor, but above all, to cause them to look to the mighty work of God, that He would perform in the latter days of the Jewish era, when Christ would come and lay a new foundation through His sacrificial death.

Some take issue with the grammar of Haggai’s prophecy when it is written, “And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come.” Some point to the Hebrew wherein “shall come” is plural, and argue that it speaks of many who shall come. It would seem to them that many from among the nations would seek the Lord. Yet the text plainly says, “the desire of all nations.” That phrase is singular. Even though it does not grammatically agree with “nations,” yet the Spirit has written it that way on purpose. "The desire (singular) shall come", and yet those of "all nations" shall come unto Him. God would draw from every tribe, tongue, and nation those whom He had chosen and for whom the LORD Jesus would come and redeem (Revelation 5:9).

Now we know that any who come to Him do so not because they are wiser, nor because they have seen more clearly than others, but because the Spirit of Christ has drawn them, and is drawing them still (Ezekiel 36:27). The text does not say that the nations desired Him and were merely awaiting His arrival; rather, it teaches that He alone could satisfy the deep yearning of those from among the nations when drawn by the Spirit of Grace. It is not everyone, but some from every nation, for whom the Lord would come and pay their debt of sin. So, then—He is the Desire, singular; and those who come to Him do so because the LORD has given them that desire—to see in Him what none other can give them: Salvation.

What then is the prophetic fulfillment of this passage, pertaining to the shaking of the nations? Historically, it was fulfilled in part in the overthrow of the Persian monarchy by the Greeks. In Haggai’s day, the Jews were under Persian rule. Cyrus had given the decree to return, but the Lord declared that He was not yet finished. After Persia came Greece, and after Greece came Rome. What was the LORD doing through all this? Shaking the nations. One may understand this also in a broader sense: the civil wars, the strife among the successors of Alexander the Great, and the rise of the Roman Empire—all these were part of the shaking. But Who was behind it? The LORD Himself. “I will shake all nations.” These kingdoms seemed to war and rise of their own accord, yet it was the LORD shaking the earth according to His sovereign will. He will shake an entire nation to shake out one of His elect, that they might be brought under the sound of the Gospel, or otherwise they might never have heard. And we who are the LORD’s, know how He shook our own lives. He brought down every false idol, every refuge of lies, and laid us low, that we might see ourselves as lost sinners in need of His Grace.

God purposed that the Desire of all nations should come. He would come in the Person of His Son, and He would make Himself desirable to His elect. How often in His earthly ministry did the Lord pass by an entire crowd to minister to one soul, and then move on? What was He doing? Making Himself desirable unto those for whom He came. In seeking out His own, they in turn would seek Him, and desire Him as their Redeemer and Savior.

• Jesus is the "Desire of All Nations"—the One for whom the nations long when the Spirit of Christ reveals Him in their hearts.

• Through Christ, God dwells among His people—not in a physical temple, but in Christ Himself, who referred to His own body as the true Temple (John 2:19-21).

• The glory of the new Temple (Christ) is greater because Christ is God incarnate, bringing the very presence of God into the world in the Temple of His body.

• Through His death and resurrection, peace is made between God and His elect remnant from all nations (Ephesians 2:14), fulfilling the promise of peace in Haggai 2:9.