So Lord may graciously help me. I'll turn your prayerful attention to the prophecy of Haggai chapter 2. I'm reading for our text verses 5 to 7. Haggai 2 verses 5 to 7.

According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. So my spirit remaineth among you. Fear ye not, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, Seth, the Lord of Hosts. Haggai 2 verses 5 to 7, and I do want to look at the context as well.

We have in this prophecy of Haggai a time when Judah was being encouraged to build the temple. The foundations had been laid some 16 years before, and then trouble had had come, the enemies had stopped the work, and the work stopped for these 16 years. And Haggai and Zechariah were raised up to encourage Judah and Israel and those other ones to start building and to build the house of God.

And in chapter 1 it has that word, consider your ways. You've you've spent much time on your own things but God hasn't blessed it because my house lays waste and so there's an encouragement there to to put God first and to seek uh to to walk in his ways but as we come into chapter two there is a discouragement uh well in chapter one then there is thankfully a response that they did respond to God's word and obeyed and they did build.

But then as they were building there is this discouragement because the house didn't have the glory and the greatness of the former house. And when they were building it or when the foundations were laid, The old men, the old people that were obviously more than, I guess, 70, 80 years old, they could remember Solomon's temple. And they could remember its greatness and its grandeur. And they looked at the foundations here and they thought, it's no comparison. It's not as great. It's not going to be as glorious. And they were discouraged. They were discouraged.

And yet here, There's an encouragement here with the prophet. In verse 3, 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? And you see, when we're discouraged, we feel like giving up. We feel there's no point. There's these glorious days that have gone before us, and we're minished and brought low. We're only a small church. And where's the glory?

But you see, there was an encouragement that they should, yea, be strong. Each of them encouraged to be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord. And be strong, O Joshua, that's the high priest. And be strong, all the people of the land, saith the Lord. And work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. You're discouraged. It doesn't seem as great. But if the Lord is with us, that's the key. If the Lord is with us, then it's well. Whatever the circumstances, it is well if God is with us. And that is this encouragement that Haggai gives to this discouraged people.

They look back to better times, better days, and think, well, they were the good days, and now we're in difficult days, and now it seems dark. And so the Lord was going to encourage them to continue. But there is another aspect to this that is important, I feel. Because the second temple, which was the temple that the Lord Jesus walked in, it was added to by Herod shortly before Jesus came. But it was basically the same temple that Zerubbabel built that the Lord Jesus entered. and would have been taken to as we read in Luke's Gospel. And you see they were discouraged that it was not so great.

But there's another aspect you see because the Ark of the Covenant obviously was in the temple when it was destroyed and we never read about it again. We never read that it was carried to to Babylon and we never read when all the vessels and the gold and the goods of the vessels were taken back and given back by Nebuchadnezzar, the ark is not reckoned, it's not mentioned. The ark and the mercy seat were gone.

So this second temple never had the ark and the mercy seat and we never also read of the Shekinah glory attending this second house. And so you might say, well, that's the very centerpiece of the tabernacle. In the Holy of Holies was the Ark. That was the centerpiece. It was missing. And yet God is pleased to then still encourage them. He doesn't say, well, if the Ark's missing, there's no point. Because what the Ark was was pointing to something. It was but a symbol.

And you see God was starting to remove those symbols because something better was coming. In Hebrews 10 verse 9 it says, And then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that he may establish the second. The first order, the ceremonial, all the sacrifices were starting to be removed in the very centerpiece, the very place where, there will I meet with thee above the mercy seat, is what we read in Exodus and in the books of Moses. But this was missing. And yet God was still with his people.

you see you might say well then this glory there's not much glory in this house anymore but there was and you see they're encouraged that the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former you might say how there's no Shekinah glory there's no ark the holy of holies is empty But in a sense that told them something, didn't it? It told them that something was missing. Something was missing. The advent. Looking for the one who would be the fulfilment of that arc. The one who would truly be the one that would save his people from their sins.

The Ark, yes, it was that made of wood, the humanity of Christ, covered with that gold, his deity pointing to Christ, but that Ark didn't die, did it? It didn't pay a tone for sin itself. No, but that Ark was looking at one that would keep the law perfectly, not inside a box, but inside a person. The Lord Jesus Christ would keep that law and make it honourable and satisfy all the requirements of that law and then shed his own blood, not the blood of bulls and goats to be sprinkled on the mercy seat, but his own blood so that there would be a propitiation of their sins.

And so here in this that we have set before us, according to the word that I covenanted with you, when I came out of Egypt. God points them back to that word he spoke and that's in Exodus. Exodus 29. Exodus 29 verses 45 and 46. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

You see, the Lord is teaching his people that there were these things that God used as pictures of spiritual things. But they were but pictures. And there came a time when those pictures were no longer needed because the reality was to come. And yet, of course, this was some 500 years or so before the Lord Jesus actually came. For 500 years, this temple had no ark. Something central missing. And yet you see the glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former Solomon, with all his glory, with the Ark of the Covenant, with the Shekinah glory cloud that they couldn't see with the smoke, with the cloud of the glory of God, all those symbols of his presence. No, they didn't have that. But they were going to have the person, not just the symbol, the person of the Savior, the glories, of Immanuel. Immanuel, that one who would come, who was what the Ark was always looking towards.

You see, there's always a danger that when God uses a symbol, it gets abused. It was the same with Jesus said to Nicodemus, as the serpent was lifted up, the brazen serpent lifted up in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. But that brazen serpent became an idol later on, and they had to destroy it because they turned it into a wrong use. And even the ark, of course, was wrongly used when it was taken into battle. when they were fighting against the Philistines in the time of Eli, around the time of Eli's death. You see, they could misuse these things and use them like a talisman, some sort of magic box that would give them superiority. But no, that was not what they were there for. They were there to point to the person and the work of Christ.

And so, as we look then at this word, There's an encouragement in verse 5, according to the word that I covenanted with you when when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remained among you. You haven't got the ark, you haven't got the mercy seat now, but you've got my presence and you've got my promises that I'm going to be with you. And you see the promises of God are those things that cannot pass away.

You see we have in verse 6, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And this shaking is also spoken of in and referred to in Hebrews chapter 12 of that shaking as it were, the whole economy of the ceremonial war was going to be shaken. Those things that the Israelites, as it were, saw as a way to see to God, they were all going to be shaken up. And why were they being shaken up? Because they were only pointers to the realities of Christ. I will shake all nations so that the things, and we read in Hebrews, so that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. So there's some things that can be shaken and there's some things that cannot be shaken. And you see the types and shadows, they were not there forever. But the things that cannot be shaken is the person and the work of Christ. You see, that's the whole picture. the High Priest entering yearly into the Holy of Holies, it was not once, it was continual. They had to do it again and again because it was not sufficient, it didn't really take away the stain, it just pointed to the way that it would be taken away.

for thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens. Here it's a little while and it's something like 500 years, a little while in God's reckoning, a little while. But they were to be faithful, God's people were to be faithful to his promise that he would be with his people. And though they didn't have the ark, though they didn't have the mercy seat, though they'd lost so much of what they could look back to, the good old days as it were, in Solomon's time, But they had God's promise that he would be with them. And they had this promise that, naturally speaking, looked completely opposite to what they'd naturally think. The glory of this latter house should be greater than that of the former. You look at it naturally and you say, it cannot be. We've no ark. We've no mercy seat. We've no Shekinah glory. We haven't got the greatness and the glory and the grandeur, the gold and the silver, and all that ornateness of Solomon's temple. How possibly can this latter house be greater than the former?

Ah, but faith, you see. That's where we come, you see, to dear Simeon. Simeon, that man of God that we read of in Luke's Gospel. In Luke's Gospel we read in Luke 2 verse 25. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. The same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. Not waiting for the ark to arrive. Not waiting so that there would be something in the Holy of Holies. No, waiting for the consolation Israel you see God had taught a Simeon to look not backwards but forwards not back to the ark but forward to what the ark was pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ and you see this is as we think of this time of the year, this advent time.

So the lack of the ark, as it were, was to make them look forward, not to have a new ark, as it were, a remade ark. You think about it naturally with all the religious state of it was at the time. So much corruption in the priesthood. The high priest was the very people that put Jesus to death, that should have been the very people that were picturing Christ most accurately. There was such confusion. Wouldn't it have been easy for them, as it were, to make a replica ark and put it in the Holy of Holies? But it's been documented in many places that the Holy of Holies was empty. God preserved that type, that Christ was going to be in that house, the ark. Christ was going to be that one. He was going to visit that temple. He was going to make it truly great. because the glory of this latter house, the glories of Emmanuel, God with us, God with his people.

You see, you think of Simeon. There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and that same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation, waiting for the comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God, in Isaiah 40. The consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost was upon him. That's what he was looking for. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

Simeon saw the Lord Jesus. Simeon, if the ark had been in that Holy of Holies, Simeon would have never seen it. He was not the high priest. The high priest could only see it once a year. But you see, the glories of Emmanuel, Simeon was going to hold the true Ark of the Covenant in his hands. He was going to nurse that little baby, the Lord Jesus Christ, as he came in with his mother and father. his mother and Joseph. And so here we see the glory of this latter house should be greater than that of the former. And so, though there was discouragement. And you see, we walked through different times, and the Lord had a purpose, you see.

There was a time, David, many psalms, a number of psalms are written about the importance of the ark, and how David was so concerned to bring the ark into a house, to have a place to rest in. It was so central at that point. Then, you see, as it were, those things were fading away. There was going to be a replacement. There was going to be what the Ark was looking towards, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we have that, you see, so much in Hebrews is so rich in looking back at what happened in Moses in the tabernacle and then pointing back forward to Christ and showing the similarities and yet the vital differences. The differences of how it was done and how much better it's done by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is so precious.

Now let is thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. He wasn't allowed to see the ark. They were forbidden, the Israelites were forbidden to see the ark if it had have been there. But you see mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Simeon recognized that this one was what it was all pointing to.

And so in our lives we can easily lay hold of the forms and clutch at those, whereas we should Go on to Christ. You see, the things, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come.

Speaking of Christ, the desire of all the nations, we read in Revelation of every kindred, nation, tribe and tongue will come and worship saying worthy is the lamb the desire of all nations you say but the world in general don't seek after him but oh he's worth if all the nations knew sure all the world would love him too all the nations of the world will come to to know him in that there will be those in each nation which will come to see the preciousness of Christ and to realize his value.

And why is he so precious? Because this is the one, this is the only one that can deliver from the consequences of Adam's sin. Adam in the Garden of Eden with Eve as they disobeyed God. They made that separation which meant that they would then have to be with Satan and his hellish hosts throughout a never-ending eternity unless they were saved by grace.

And Satan, you see, is that enemy of God. He hates God. He hates He hates God's people. He doesn't want any human being to be found in glory. He wants them all to be in the lake of fire with him. He's a horrible character. To serve Satan all your life, the reward is to be with him in a lake of fire forever and ever. He's a horrible character.

And so, But the Lord Jesus is that one that's come. But what is the problem? What is Satan's strength as it were? How does he have those people in his power? Because the wages of sin is death. That's the wages, that's his strength. Satan's strength as it were, his claim on them is because they're sinners. Because they're sinners. That's his claim. And he says these people can't go to heaven, they're sinners. And in that sense he's right. He's true, he's true, they are sinners.

But you see that's where the liberation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ comes in. He stands in his people's place and pays the due reward of their sins. the wrath of God, the righteous anger of God that was poured out upon their sin, which was just and right. He took it himself, he stood in their place. And so now they are justified, now they are set free. Now they are, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.

And you see, Satan has lost his claim. His grip on them was that they're sinners. But now, they've been declared righteous. His claim for holding them is null and void. And you see that's why these two things that are brought together, blotting out the handwriting of ordinance which was against them, nailing them to his cross, that's the taking their sin and dealing with it. Then it goes on to say, and spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them. That's the other side. That's Satan's kingdom losing its power, losing its grip on the people of God.

He can no longer drag them down into that bottomless pit Because his claims, oh, he still accuses the brethren. He still tries to accuse them. But now his claims are false. Now his claims are not any more true. And so this is the preciousness of the Lord Jesus. He came to save his people from their sins. This is our greatest need, our sin. This is the thing that enables us to be in prison, as it were, with Satan and his hellish hosts. will be forever except the Lord prevent.

But you see the Lord Jesus is that one who came to deliver his people to save his people from their sins. So Israel was being taught to look beyond the ark. The Simeons of this world, they looked beyond the Ark. Anna, the prophetess, she spoke to all that looked for redemption. Redemption was the point, not vindication. Sadly, the Pharisees, that's what they were looking for, the Messiah to come to vindicate them from the Roman rule. Anna wasn't looking for vindication. She was looking for redemption. She was a sinner. And she needed a savior. She needed forgiveness. She needed one to stand in her place. She needed one to liberate her from the strength of Satan and his grip. She needed redemption. She looked for redemption and she spoke to all that looked for that redemption. She spoke to them and no doubt they delighted in this one, the glory of this latter house. shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts. In this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.

Well, so the Lord Jesus came and we've spoken of the shaking that was happening, how these things were being shaken and God in our lives shakes things because everything here below is shakable. Our lives, a brittle thread. Our homes, our jobs, our relationships, they're brittle. They can be shaken, they can be destroyed. But therefore we are to look for those things which cannot be shaken. What cannot be shaken? The finished work of Christ. The finished work of Christ which cannot be shaken. It is finished, it's secure. In him is life. And in him is the light of the world. And so we need to come and recognise those things that are able to be shaken and God does shake. And he shook, you see, the whole ceremonial system. He shook it up. And the whole temple in 70 AD was destroyed. That was gone. It was no longer needed. The sun had risen, the shadows were no longer needed. That's not to say that we should no longer look at them, because I believe they show us much of Christ. But we're to see Christ in them, not to glory in those things themselves. were to see Christ, and they had to teach us. And the whole ceremonial system was a teaching, how God was teaching us about himself, teaching us about holiness, teaching us how to be right with God, how a sinful people could live with a holy God. The shedding of blood, the mercy seat, the atonement. These are the great truths of the gospel, the glory, this latter house should be greater than the former,' saith the Lord of hosts."

But then we think of another thing that happened in this temple. This temple that was to be that place where the sacrifices were taking place and yet that temple was that place that rejected the Savior. The scribes and the priests, the high priests, they plotted against Christ, the very one that had been sent, the one who all the types and shadows were looking for. It's a tremendous irony, isn't it, really? The high priest should have been the one that was the most welcoming to Christ.

find Christ the most precious because he was resembling Christ. He was pointing to Christ and when Christ came, Christ was rejected. He came unto his own and his own received him not. It's interesting if you look in Isaiah 49, prophetic of Christ, another name sometimes of Israel is also given to the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Israel, the one who didn't go into idolatry, the one who did truly was a light to lighten the Gentiles as Israel was meant to be. But Israel failed, but Christ accomplished that.

Isaiah 49, we read this, Verse 3, And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel. You might think that's talking about the nation, but you read on, it's not. And said unto me, Thou art my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. This is the father speaking. Then I said, this is Christ speaking, I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for naught. He came unto his own. the temple that was picturing Christ and his substitutional work and he was rejected, he was despised, he was thrown out by the very people who were meant to be resembling him, meant to be pointing to him, then said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain, yet surely my judgement is with my God. Surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.

And now, saith the Lord, that for me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Christ, you see, had been raised up to redeem Israel, those that look for redemption. Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, is it a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob? So the father's saying to the son, is it a small thing just to redeem Israel? I'm going to give you much more to do than that. I'm going to make you much more profitable than just Israel. Is it a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel? I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth."

Here we see that Abrahamic promise. In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. That's what Israel was meant to be. But Israel forsook, you see, they went into idolatry and they became like the nations instead of being a symbol to them. Christ came, you see, to do everything that Israel didn't do. And he came to restore that which they'd lost. And that's why that Redeemer you see is so precious, to buy back that which was lost by Satan and by sin and by all their depravity. He came to purchase them and to redeem them and to bring them back to God through the Red Sea of his own blood.

And so we see that when they rejected the Lord Jesus, who was the true temple, Jesus said, destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days. And they said, oh, it can't be. 43 years was they in building it. I think that was when Herod was working on it. He extended it. And are you going to build it in three days? But he spoke of his body, the temple, the temple. And you see, that temple, you see, was that which he was going to accomplish. And we think of Calvary.

And when he was there in his people's place, the Lamb of God, bearing the sin of his church, his entire church, as he said, it is finished, and gave up the ghost, we read that the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom. The Holy of Holies, which had nothing in it, Now, because it was not there. Because the true Holy of Holies, the true Ark was Christ, it was on the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ was that one.

And he didn't, in Hebrews, if you look in Hebrews what it says, Hebrews 9 verse 24, for Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands. See, he didn't die and then take his blood and offer it in the Holy of Holies, did he? No, he didn't. For Christ is not entered in the holy place made with hands, which were a figure of the true, but into heaven itself. He took his blood and offered it before the Father. as the demonstration that he had stood in his people's place. The remission of sins without the shedding of blood is no remission.

He didn't go into the temple, but although that it showed that as the veil was opened, as was rent, the way into the holiest was now accomplished. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the true. You see, they were pictures of the reality. The reality was that Christ was going to go to heaven and present himself before the Father and his blood, which are figures of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us for us.

You see, the glory of this latter house should be greater than the former. It pointed to the saviour. The types and shadows, precious as they were, and instructive as they are, and they're still instructive to the church today. and will be to the end of time. They're very instructive. They give physical pictures of something that is speaking of the heavenlies.

But we must never make the physical thing the actual reality. We must never make the ark as it was Christ himself, because it was but a box. It was a symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that was, as they came towards that time of that was taken away, and the place was made for the true ark, the one who would walk in the temple, the one who could be seen by Simeon, could be seen by Anna, and can be received into our hearts. He comes to abide in his people's hearts. He comes to us. Oh, come to us. Abide with us, our Lord. Emmanuel. That's what he does to his people.

Not behind that veil. The high priest could only go once a year and in these last 500 years he couldn't even see the Ark there because it wasn't there. But going back in Moses' time he could go in once a year. Then we can know this blessing of Emmanuel God with us. He's come in the person of the Saviour. And Hebrews starts in that glorious way. God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. This is the last word. This is what everything was pointing to. And now he's come. The advent has come. But he's coming again. He's coming again. We look, you see, for the second advent. He's coming again to bring his people to himself. And the whole of this world is but waiting for that time when the last trump shall sound and time will be no longer.

But until that happens, we are to preach the word. We are to so to seek to draw God's people and bring them to himself that they might come to hear the gospel go into all the world and preach the gospel unto every creature.

God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you. Fear ye not. Fear ye not, you see, the Lord's people are going to be brought away from all the all the earthly. There was such a grandeur in Solomon's temple, wasn't there? There was such a something that everybody could see it was great. But when it came to the king of kings and lord of lords entering into the temple, Simeon needed faith to see that that was the child of God. There was nothing to show him that that was not just another ordinary baby. You see, the Lord is able to give that understanding and able to reveal that so that it is a spiritual thing. It is not an external pomp and glory. There was much of that in Solomon's temple. There was much to admire on an earthly level. But you see, We have something better. We have the promises of God, the promises that he will be with his people, and he will comfort them, and he will go before them. So my spirit remaineth among you. Fear ye not.

And then he says, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 500 years later, he was going to shake everything with the coming, the advent of Christ. Seth, and I will fill this house with glory. Seth, the Lord of hosts, the glory of the Lord. Yes, it is to be beheld by faith. You see, we are to walk by faith. We're not to have We aren't to have all those external symbols of glory and incense and all those natural things that stir up the natural thinking. We are to walk by faith. We are to believe what God has said and that what God has said will come to pass. And though we perhaps feel to be small and insignificant, the word of God still stands. And we're commanded to rise up and build, to work on this great work. and be strong all the people of the land saith the Lord and work for I am with you saith the Lord of hosts.

If God is so great then we have to walk by faith. We have to trust that what God is doing. Oh it was 500 years before he came. You say that's a tremendous time. But you see the Lord is faithful to his promise. We don't know how long it will be between the first advent and the second advent. We don't know. It's been 2000 years approximately. We don't know how much longer it will be. But what we know is it will be well with those that fear God. It will be well with those who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them in the gospel. It will be well with those who have fixed their hopes for time and eternity in the unshakable work of Christ, you'll be well with them. But to be trusting in ourselves, in a form of godliness and denying the power, they'll all get swept away.

But there will be that which remaineth, like Simeon looking for the consolation of Israel, not looking for the return of the ark, looking for the consolation of Israel, looking for Christ. And you see, we are commanded then in Revelation, even so come, Lord Jesus, to look, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God.

These are realities. And this is the reality of knowing God, not just the types and shadows, not just the ordinances which in and of themselves are precious, but only precious as they lead us to Christ. May we be led to Christ, the true ark, the one thing that is unshakable.

When this earth and all its vanities pass away, the word of God, Christ is the word. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. May we be able to say, each of us, and we, beheld, His glory.