Haggai 2:7,9 – and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts….. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.”
This amazing prophesy from Haggai is quite extensive (I only included a small portion here). He prophesies about the first coming of Christ, the rebuilding of the temple, the nations coming to the Lord, the wealth of the nations coming to God’s house, and the second coming of Christ. What makes it a little difficult is that all of these topics are sort of thrown together because Haggai was looking into the future and could not see the timing of these things accurately. The part that I wanted to focus on today is at the end of the passage from the Amplified Translation; “in this place I will give peace and prosperity”. That’s exactly what happens when our lives are turned toward the Lord, supernatural peace floods our life, He directs our lives into His perfect habitation for us, and he brings supernatural prosperity into our lives. The word translated peace in this passage is shalom, “I will give shalom, says the Lord”. Haggai started this passage talking about the Desire of all Nations, Jesus is the treasure for all of those who are coming to Him. Here is how Augustine describes this passage.
“Accordingly we must understand the words God spoke by Haggai’s mouth, “And I will give peace in that place,” as referring to the place for which the temple stood. Since the restored temple signified the church, which Christ was to build, those words can mean only “I will give peace in that place [the church] which this place [the rebuilt temple] prefigures. Not until the house of the New Testament receives its final consecration will its greater glory in relation to the house of the Old Testament be made perfectly clear. This will take place at the second coming of him whom the Hebrew text calls “the desire of all nations.” Obviously his first coming was not desired of all nations, for unbelievers did not even know whom they should desire to come. In the end too, as the Septuagint puts it with equal amount of prophetic meaning, “the chosen of the Lord shall come from all nations.” Then, truly, only the chosen shall come, those of whom St. Paul says, even “as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.”
What an incredible prophesy from the pen of Haggai; the Treasured One will come, the nations’ hearts will be turned to Him, and prosperity and favor will come upon all of God’s people. This is the message the angels were singing about in Bethlehem the night Christ was born, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
