The first chapter of Haggai is mainly spent in reproving the
negligence of the Jews, who, being discouraged from time to time, had
delayed the rebuilding of the temple. In the meantime they employed
their care and cost in building and adorning their own houses: but, at
last, being persuaded to set about the work, they met with this
discouragement, that such was the poverty of the present time, that the
second structure would not match the magnificence and splendor of the
first. In Solomon’s days the nation was wealthy, but now it was drained;
so that there would be no comparison between the second and the first.
To this great discouragement the prophet applies this relief: that
whatsoever should be lacking in external pomp and glory, should be more
than recompensed by the presence of Jesus Christ in this second temple.
For Christ, “the desire of all nations,” he says, shall come into it.
Which, by the way, may give us this useful note: The presence of Jesus
Christ gives a more real and excellent glory to the places of his
worship, than any external beauty or outward ornaments whatsoever can
bestow upon them. Our eyes, like the disciples, are apt to be dazzled
with the sparkling stones of the temple, and, in the meantime, to
neglect and overlook that which gives it the greatest honour and beauty.
But to return. In these words we have
both the description of Christ, and an arrow pointing at the time of his
incarnation: he is called “the desire of all nations,” and the time of
his coming in the flesh is clearly implied to be during the time of the
second temple. Where, by the way, we find a valid reason to stand amazed
at and bemoan the blindness of the Jews. They admit the truth of this
prophecy and are not able to deny the destruction of the second temple,
many hundred years past, yet will not be brought to acknowledge the
incarnation of the true Messiah. Keep Reading >>>
