of Haggai tonight, I'm going
to be working my way toward the heart of his message, found in
chapter 2. Let's begin there. Haggai 2,
verses 6-9. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
Yet once, it is a little while, and I shall shake the heavens
and the earth, 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, saith the Lord of Hosts. The silver
is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of 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." Now, Haggai was an exemplary
prophet. His name means festive or feast
of the Lord. He was sent of God along with
Zechariah and then Malachi to minister to his people after
the return of the Jews from their 70 years of captivity in Babylon. As I said, he was an exemplary
prophet. Haggai spent no time at all talking
about himself. He had only one basis for anything
he said, only one basis of authority. He didn't even refer to other
preachers, and he certainly didn't refer to history and the writings
of men. But his basis of authority was
just this, thus saith the Lord. Its singular desire was the glory
of God. The object of his care was the
people of God. He had no rebuke, except he also
gave a word of encouragement. He had no correction, except
he also gave a word of comfort and consolation. He did rebuke. He was sent specifically to rebuke
the people. But he rebukes them and gives
encouragement in the rebuke. He did correct. He was sent specifically
to correct them. But as he corrects them, he comforts
them and teaches them. He was distinctively sent of
God to stir up the people of Judah to devote themselves to
the worship of our God. To devote themselves to building
his house. establishing his worship, promoting
his glory in the land. He was distinctly sent of God
to stir up the children of Israel, to consecrate themselves unto
the Lord God and his worship. Now let me give you just a little
bit of the background. The Jews had been captives in
Babylon for 70 years, just exactly as Jeremiah prophesied they would
be. What a sad, sad 70 years that must have been for those
who worshiped God. Now, the many of them, as we've
seen, settled down in the land and became prosperous in the
land, and they didn't miss Jerusalem, and they didn't miss the worship
of God, and they didn't miss the temple of God. They were
perfectly content to stay in Babylon, and they did. But how
sad those 70 years must have been. for those few among the
children of Israel who knew God and worshipped him. They sang
like David, how can we sing the songs of the Lord in a strange
land? They hung their hearts upon the
willows, and they sat down and waited for God to deliver them.
After the seventy years were fulfilled, Daniel prophesied,
while he was still in Babylon, and tells us that God graciously
stirred up the king and delivered his people from Babylon and began
bringing them back into their land. Not all at once, but little
by little, until at last, when the seventy years were finished,
the Jews were restored and given complete freedom again in the
land of Judah. They first came under Zerubbabel,
who is mentioned in the opening verse of Haggai. Zerubbabel was
the captain of the remnant that came back from Babylon. He was
appointed to be the governor of Judah. And while they came
to Jerusalem, they looked at the city and saw it laying in
heaps, just out of ruins. The walls were broken down, the
temple was completely destroyed. And the Lord had sent them back
specifically with the task of rebuilding the temple. rebuilding
the city and reestablishing the true worship of God, the worship
of the true and living God in the land where God's name was
held sacred in his house and in his temple. And so they began
work, they began immediately. They came in and the first thing
they did, the first order of business was to rebuild the temple,
the house of God in Jerusalem. And as time passed, though they
were still under Babylonian rule, God gave them favor with the
king, and they were granted permission to do the work, and so they started
working. I can just almost imagine how
enthusiastic they were. Look here, boys, this is where
the temple is. This is where we used to worship God. This
is where we heard God speak. This is where we saw the sacrifice.
This is where we were instructed of our fathers, and we will instruct
our children. And so they started clearing
out the debris and started to build the temple, and they laid
the foundation quickly. And they got a row or two of
blocks, a row or two of stones laid, and then something happened. They quit. They just quit. They just stopped. And they didn't
do one thing for 15 years. Nothing. They came back out of
Babylonian captivity, and they laid the foundation of the temple,
and they laid a row or two of the stones, and then they quit. They stopped their work. The
Jews who had returned with Ezra, some 50,000 of them, 50,000,
came back from Babylon specifically commissioned of God, specifically
commissioned of the king, and specifically determined to build
again the temple, the house of God. But they didn't do anything
for 15 years. Now this is where Haggai comes
in. Come back to the book of Ezra. And if you want to read
carefully, I'd recommend that you read the book of Ezra and
the book of Haggai together. Back here in Ezra chapter 5. Haggai is sent of God, along
with Zechariah, who is mentioned here in Ezra 5, and Malachi,
to speak for God to his people. Ezra 5, verse 1. Then the prophets
Haggai and the prophet Zechariah, the son of Iddo, prophesied unto
the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the
God of Israel, even to them. then rose up Zerubbabel, the
son of Shittil, and Jeshua, the son of Josedach, and began to
build the house of God which is at Jerusalem. And with them
were the prophets of God helping them, laboring together, building
the house of God. But then it all stopped. Haggai
and Zechariah came in and they labored together and started
the work again. Now, this is how Haggai stirred them up to
the He delivered four messages to Judah that are recorded in
these two brief chapters. These four messages he specifically
dates. And he tells us plainly that
he delivered these four messages over a period of about 18 months.
But everything he has to say to Judah in these two chapters,
in these four messages, he says to you and I. These are God's
messages to you and I today. They are written for our learning
and our admonition. His messages are for us to consider
some things. He uses that word, consider,
four times. Look at it. In chapter 1, verse 5, he says,
Consider your ways, telling Judah and telling us to give serious
thought to the way we live before God. What do you live for? What motivates you? What inspires
you? What rules you? Then in verse
7 of chapter 1, he repeats that admonition, Consider your ways.
But there he's calling for us to seriously think about our
present circumstances. Here is Judah, and everything
is empty and barren and waste. And he says, Consider your ways
in the present circumstance you're in. Consider your ways in the
light of God's providence, showing clearly that there is a connection,
distinct connection between the way we live in reference to God
and the things we experience in the providence of God. If we're God, if we're God, he
won't leave us to ourselves. Thank God he won't. He won't
leave us to ourselves. A father who loves his sons and
daughters will not leave them to themselves. He will see to
it that they're obedient. He sees to it, no matter how
much pain it costs them. He sees to it their obedience,
because he loves them. And then in chapter 2, verse
15, the prophet calls for us to consider the house of God,
to consider the worship of God in connection with the great
barrenness we've Look here. You see this terrible barrenness?
Now look at things in the light of how you live in reference
to this house, to my worship. Then in verse 18 of chapter 2,
he again calls for us to consider the house of God, the very foundation
of the house, the worship of God, and the blessedness he promises
in connection with that house. Now let's look at these four
messages that Haggai gave. And I pray that God the Holy
Spirit will inscribe the lessons of these messages on our hearts. His first message is found in
chapter 1, verses 1 through 15. It is a word of stern rebuke
with regard to one of the most common, most horrible crimes
known to God's people in this world. It's called indifference
to God. difference to God. The house of God had laid in
ruins for 15 years. Nothing had been done. And you
come and ask the folks why. And they had a good reason. Oh,
they had a good reason. Good, sound, theological reason. They said, now Haggai Don't be
too hard on us. You don't understand. Don't you
remember Jeremiah the prophet said that God would deliver Israel
and gather his people again and build his house again in 70 years? It's not been 70 years yet. The
70 years weren't quite fulfilled yet. There are still a few years
to go before it would finally be accomplished. And so the Jews
Many of them were still in Babylon, and these folks who were down
here in Judah, who had begun work on the house 15 years earlier,
they stopped, and they quit doing anything, and Haggai comes down,
and he reduced them, he starts to correct them, and they, wait
a minute now, wait a minute, we are good, strong, predestinary,
and Baptist. We're not going to interfere
with God's purpose. We're not going to run before God. We're
going to wait on God to do what he said he would do. Let's see
if that's not what they said. Look at verse 2. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts,
saying, This people say, The time is not come. It's not time yet. We don't want
anybody to accuse us of being We don't want anybody to accuse
us of being our men. We don't want anybody to accuse us of
denying God's sovereignty. The time has not yet come, the
time that the Lord's house should be built, and we're not going
to interfere with that. We recognize that God's going
to accomplish his purpose. Well, the fact is, God does accomplish
his purpose, and he accomplishes his purpose in this world. Now,
listen to me. I stress this with you just in
case there's anything back there in your mind I don't know about,
and I stress it to anybody who hears this message on tape or
video or radio any other way it's heard, because I know what
people think. You listen to me. God Almighty
will accomplish his purpose, and he'll use folks just like
Bob Duff and Don Forster to do it. He will not bypass his purpose
means to accomplish his purpose. He'll use men and women. chosen
and redeemed and called by his grace to perform his work in
this world. And Haggai, being the faithful
prophet he was, wasn't about to let these folks off the hook.
Instead of responding to their indifference under the pretense
of theological orthodoxy, he didn't say, Oh, I understand,
I understand what you're saying. I hadn't thought of that. I apologize. I see what you're saying. We
certainly don't want to interfere with God's purpose. No, Haggai
instead sticks his finger right on the sorest spot he can find.
Now, if I'm faithful to your soul, Rex Bartlett, that's what
I'm going to do. I'm going to find the sorest
spot I can between you and God at any time and push as hard
as I can. And that's what it does. Look
what it does here, verse 4. It is not time, you say. Now
look at his response. Is it time for you? It's not
time to build God's house. Is it time for you, O ye, to
dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste? Oh! Now, that's where the rubber
hits the road. There's the real problem. In
other words, the prophet says the real problem here is not
that you're waiting on the Lord, but rather that you've got other
things more important. Other things consuming your thoughts. Other things of greater concern.
Other things that cause you, because of your love for these
other things, to be indifferent and lukewarm with regards of
God, our Savior. And that is always the problem. Not occasionally, always. I hear
folks, oh, well, Doc, I can't do this. I can't be there. I
can't. I would have been there, but you know, I had these things
come up. I understand. I understand. I really do. I
really do. I hope you will see. I understand. It's called indifference. It's
called the love of the world. It's called loving and serving
and living for self. And if you're God, if I'm God,
He won't allow that. He won't allow that. He won't
leave us in a stupor of lukewarmness. The unbelieving religious fellow,
he'll leave him in a stupor of lukewarmness and make him be
fully convinced that he's as zealous and devoted as he can
be. Haggai says, you refuse to do anything that's going to cost
you time and labor and money and commitment for the glory
of God and the worship of God. You don't do anything. But you
don't hesitate to build yourself a fine house and seal your house
and fix everything up while the house of God lays in ruin? And it appeals to a sense of
shame. And that's not the best of motives. That's not the best of motives,
but it ain't the worst either. It ain't the worst either. Your mothers and dads, when your
children behave in such a way as they ought to be ashamed,
and you can sit them down and talk to them and say, now, son,
you know, you know what this is. You know what you're doing.
and they begin to hang their head, soon begin to weep, and
things change. And you think, okay, all right,
this is over, all right. And that's exactly what happened
here. Look at verse 14. The Lord stirred up the spirit
of Zerubbabel, the son of Shechel, the governor of Judah, and the
spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest and
the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came
and did work in the house of the Lord, of host their God."
Now, learn the lessons, children of God, clearly here. It is impossible for you and
I to ignore Christ and the interest of his kingdom and his glory
It is impossible for us to live in indifference to the things
of God and prosper spiritually. It's impossible. It can't be.
It can't be. Well, that hasn't been my experience.
We'll talk to Brother Jonah about it. Let's seek first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. Seek first the glory of God.
Seek first the will of God. Seek first what's needful for
your soul, not what you are pleased with, not what makes you feel
good. These folks sowed much but reaped
little, though they looked for and expected much. They ate,
they, oh, I gotta take care of my food, I gotta give me something
to eat. But they were never filled. They drank, but they were never
satisfied. They put on their clothes, but
they were never warm. They always wanted something
else. They received wages for their labor, but they had holes
in their pockets, and they could never get enough. They gathered
wood, but God's breath of judgment was upon everything. So that
everything they did came to nothing, and they could find no satisfaction
and no peace. Nothing. You look at chapter 1, verse
6, and I'll read that in just a minute. For every one of you
fathers and mothers have tried your best to teach your sons
and daughters, I try my dead-double best to teach you and to teach
me. There is nothing, nothing in
this world in which you can ever find satisfaction. Nothing. Nothing. Get all you can get
and can all you can get and you're still going to want more and
can more. There's nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I see grown men and women, you
know if I, I go with our grandson's house and because he's my grandson
I get down on the floor and I get his trucks and tractors and cars
out and I run around and play with those things. But if one
of them breaks and he starts to whimper a little bit, I don't
scold him too bad because, you know, I expect that from him,
he's just two. But if I were to get one of those trucks down
and start to push the load and the axle would break on it and
the thing wouldn't work anymore and you saw me cry, you'd be calling somebody to
check me and say, funny father, what are you doing? It's nothing. It's just nothing. Oh, God help
me to learn that. You see it? You see it? It's
nothing. Just nothing. Look here, Haggai
1 verse 6. You sow much, you bring in little.
You eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you're not filled
with drink. He's not saying you work hard
and don't get anything for it. He's saying you work hard, you
get everything you want, you still got nothing. You call on you, but
there's none to warm. There's none warm. And he that
earneth wages, earneth wages to put into a bag with holes.
Verse 11. I called for a drought upon the
land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the
new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth
forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon the labor of
the hands. Now wait a minute. What's he
talking about? A drought? on corn, and oil,
and wine, in the vine, in the stalk, in the field? What's he
talking about? He's not talking about a physical
drought. They've got plenty of the corn and the oil, they're
just nothing to satisfy. Here you are, it did it, no matter
what you do. They made God and His worship,
His glory, secondary to their own pleasure and comfort and
earthly concerns. And Haggai pointed it out sharply. Now look at his second message.
A month later. A month later. That's the reason
you can't get along on just one message. You've got to have another.
A month later, things are in exactly the same shape. The work
stopped again. So Haggai steps up to deliver
his second message, verses 1 through 9. The people had worked hard
on the temple and finished it, but the restored temple appeared
to be nothing. It appeared to be nothing. But
it's a different problem this time. Compared to the great edifice
that Solomon had built, this one was a lot smaller. Not anywhere
near as costly, not anywhere near as appealing to the eye,
not anywhere near as grand, not anywhere near as beautiful. And
so some of the old folks You need some old folks. You
don't need all old folks. And some of the old codgers,
they said, wiped a tear from their eyes, said,
boy, I remember how things used to be. It wasn't like this in
Solomon's day. It wasn't like this when we left
here. This one never meant anything. What you're doing here is nothing,
nothing compared to what Solomon did. Let's look and see if that's
not right. Look at chapter 2, verse 3. Haggai
says, Who's 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? Come back to Ezra again, chapter
3. Ezra 3. The young bucks, they sometimes
need their zeal tempered, but thank God they've got some. The
old folks tend to have plenty of temper and no zeal. And here
are some of these old folks, Ezra 3, verse 12. But many of the priests and Levites
were the chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, old men.
They'd been around a long, long time. that had seen the first
house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their
eyes, wept with a loud voice." They just wept out loud. Oh, how bad things are! How bad
things are! I talked to a very dear friend
of mine today, a pastor in another state, and he was lamenting a
little. Nice fellow. I love him to death.
How bad things are. Oh, oh, I long for those days
with Edwards and Whitfield and Security. Long for those days.
Oh, how bad things are. I don't know how it is where
you are, but down here, I just don't see much. Well, Haggard
had a message. for those folks, too. A message
for us. And it had four parts. Look at
it. Here's the first point, verse
4. Last line of verse 4. This is what God says. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you. Sayeth the Lord of hosts, I'm
with you. Here's the second point. I'm going to be with you, because
I made a covenant. Look at it, verse 5. According
to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of
Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you, fear ye not. Stay with us, stay with me, I'm
with you. I'm going to stay with you. Here's the third point.
The prophet here speaks of greater things than their natural eyes
could see. All they could see was that They
knew how big it used to be. They knew what it used to look
like. All they could see was just what they could measure
with their physical eyes. But the prophet says, God's going
to do greater things than your eyes can behold. And he promises
the coming of Christ and the glory that would fill his house.
Look at it again in verse 6. Haggai 2, verse 6. Thus saith
the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, just a
little while, just a little while, One day with him is a thousand
years, a thousand years is one day. Don't get impatient. He's
not in a hurry. It is a little while, and I'll shake the heavens
and the earth and the sea and the dry land. I want to show
you in a minute, that's talking about the utter destruction of
this temple and of Jerusalem and the building of another temple
this one spoke of, this one typified. I'll shake the nations, all nations,
and the desire of all nations shall come. And I will fill this
house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." Verse 9. The glory
of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. You
thought Solomon's temple was great? Well, do you see what
I do? Saith the Lord of hosts. And in this place will I give
peace, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, no question, no question,
this prophecy certainly was fulfilled. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
brought by his mother and dad into the temple eight days after
he was born, and Simeon picked him up in his arms and said,
Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, my eyes have seen your
salvation. Anna picked him up and she blessed
him and said, he's great, he's going to be great. And so the
glory of God incarnate in human flesh came into this temple.
But that's not the fulfillment of this prophecy. I know it's
not because of Hebrews 12. Turn over to Hebrews 12. The
apostle writes here and quotes directly from Habakkuk 2. The glory spoken of here in Habakkuk
is the glory that shall be revealed in our hearts in the last day.
when we are made partakers of Christ's glory in his everlasting
kingdom. But it is a glory which is already
commenced, of which we are now receiving right now by his grace. Hebrews 12, verse 25. See that
you refused not him that spoke, not spoke, but speaketh. He's
still speaking. For if they escaped not who refused
him that spoke on earth, How much more shall not we escape
if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven?" Verse
26. "...whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised,
saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth, but heaven also.
And this word yet once more signifieth," now watch it, "...the removing
of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that
those things which cannot be made or cannot be shaken, may
remain." In other words, by the gospel of God, preached in this
day, by the power of the King who sits on his throne, God Almighty
is shaking everything that can be shaken. Everything that can
be shaken, and it shall fall. If you don't, those things that
can't be shaken will remain, verse 28. Wherefore, now here
is the interpretation of it, we receiving present tense. We, because of this shaking of
things in heaven and things in earth, shaking of everything
that can be shaken, because of this utter destruction of everything
carnal and establishing of that which is spiritual, we receiving
a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and God-be-fearing.
for our God is a consuming fire." Back here in Habakkuk, or Haggai,
rather, our Lord Jesus is described as the desire of all nations.
The desire of all nations? Now, wait a minute. No man seeks
after God. No. No man does. No man follows
after righteousness. No man does. Well, how can it
be said that Christ is the desire of all nations? He is that one
who embodies everything that every human being desires. Satisfaction and peace. I'll bet a little bit ago he
got peace. And you will never find satisfaction? You'll never
find contentment, you'll never find peace, you'll never find
righteousness, you'll never find acceptance with God, you'll never
find ease of conscience except in Him. Look at Malachi chapter
3, Malachi 3 verse 1, talking about the same thing. Behold,
I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before
me. And the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his people,
even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he
shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, Haggai is saying
to us, in the light of these things, children of God, don't
ever despise the day of small things. Don't ever despise God's
work in your day. Don't ever give up in the cause
of Christ, for your labor is not in vain in the Lord. We have a terrible tendency,
and when I say we, I'm talking about me more than anybody here.
We have a terrible tendency to judge God's work and God's providence
based on what we see with these eyes. And it is horrible to do
so. To do so will only breed pride
and self-righteousness our discouragement and indifference. Rather, let
us judge what we see by God's word. And God's word declares
that he will build his house. He will build his church. The
gates of hell will not prevail against it. He will establish
his glory in this earth. Mother Don, we just lack, we
don't have any money, we don't have any ability, we don't have
any strength, we can't do it, we can't do it, we can't do it,
we can't do it, we can't do it. Oh, I hate that word can't. Can't. Can't. I can't. God can't. God can't. Look at verse 8. Lord, how do you expect us to
go on with this thing? The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,
and I'm the Lord of hosts. I own it all, I rule it all. I own it all, I rule it all. I'll tell you what I've experienced
in my life as a believer. My wife can vouch for it. I have
never in my life Looked ahead at something. Saw something that
needed to be done. I'm convinced God had me do this. And I haven't got any money. I can't
do it. But I have never yet. Never in
my life, never since I was 17 years old, never have I saw what
God had me to do and put my hand to it and put one foot in front of
the other that every seed didn't divide in front of me. Never
in my life, never. Not one time. Not one time have
I ever, ever, ever I simply trusted God to provide what was necessary
for me to do what I was convinced He would have me to do, but He
didn't provide it. Never. I've never faced an obstacle
or a foe. Not one in my life. Not one in
my life. Too powerful, too mighty for
me that God Almighty didn't just cause to fall down under me and
make a bridge so I could walk over there and get to the other
side. Never in my life. Never in my life. Well, what
are you saying, preacher? I reckon if God's in it, we can
do it. Whatever it is, he has what to do. But then Haggai has
another message. And his third message describes
our utter inability to do anything. We can't do a thing. Apparently
there were some He describes here in verses 10-19 of chapter
2, who worked feverishly. They were, OK, buddy, we're ashamed
of ourselves, and we're going to get back to work, and they
worked feverishly, building the house of God. But they got the
notion, somehow got the notion, that doing the work, being connected
with Being connected with a holy work, engaging in building the
house of God, made them acceptable with God. Made them holy. Got the notion that, well, if
that thing's holy and I touch it, I'll be holy. If that's good and I touch it,
I'll be good. If that's righteous and I get in on that, I'll be
righteous. And so Haggai declares, by giving a clear illustration
from the Levitical law, Now, if you're a priest and you touch
a dead body, are you going to be clean or unclean? Unclean. If you're sanctified and you
come and rub across something that's unclean, are you clean
or unclean? Unclean. Look at verse 14. And so is this nation before
me, saith the Lord. And so is every work of their
hands, and that which they offer, everything they offer there,
right here on my altar, in my house, by my priest, that which
they offer there, it's all unclaimed. It's all unclaimed. In verses
15, 16, and 17, the prophet calls for us to consider the temple
itself from its very foundation. You see, our cleanness, our acceptance
with our God, is to be found in the person and the work of
Christ who is portrayed in everything in that temple. The priesthood,
the sacrifices, the altar, the mercy seat, the showbread, the
candlestick, everything, it's all portraying him. Look at chapter
2, verse 15. Now I pray you consider this
from this day forward, from this day and upward, from before a
stone was laid upon the stone in the temple of the Lord. Since
those days were, when one came to a heap of twenty measures,
and there were but ten, when one came to a press-fat, for
to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, and there were
but twenty, I smelt you with blasting, and with mildew, and
with hail, in all the labors of your hands. Yet you turn not
to me, but I'll build my house, and all cleanness is found here.
As the building of this house is God's work, as the building
of the temple is his work altogether, so your cleanness, your righteousness,
your acceptance with God is altogether his. And we'll see it here with
the verses 18 and 19. He calls for us again to consider
all that was typically symbolized in the temple, and to keep our
hearts focused on that, focused on Christ and his glory, and
he assures of the blessedness found in and flowing to us from
him. There is a time to sow and a
time to reap. Now, when you go out next March,
April, May, you plow up the ground, you plant your corn in the ground,
plant your beans in the ground. No need in going out and getting
your baskets and starting to think about gathering them up
the next day. You're not going to get anything. You sow, and
you work, and you wait. Because God said there's a time
to sow and a time to reap. July, August, September. Take the basket out and gather
things up. This, children of God, Church
of God, this is our sowing time. That's all. Our sowing time. It's our business just to sow.
But don't be discouraged by anything you see, because there's blessedness
coming. Look at the last part of Haggai,
verses 20-23. Here's his last message. It's about this coming blessedness
that awaits God's people. He spans the ages of time and
speaks of Christ even more fully than he has before. Again the
word of the Lord came to Haggai in the fourth and twentieth day
of the month, saying, Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah,
saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth, and I will overthrow
the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms
of the heathen, and I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride
in them, and the horses and their riders shall come down, every
one by the sword of his brother. In that day saith the Lord of
hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shechel,
saith the Lord, and I will make thee a signet, for I have chosen
thee, saith the Lord of hosts." Here Zerubbabel is clearly set
before us as a type of Christ. We'll see it more clearly in
Zechariah 4 when we get there. Zerubbabel is the governor of
Judah and the governor of the earth. Christ is he upon whose
shoulders God has placed the government of all things. Zerubbabel
shakes heaven and earth. He is the one shaking everything.
That's our Redeemer. He overthrows and subdues kingdoms. He is called here Jehovah's servant. And God says, I'll make you a
sick man. Now, we don't understand much
of that kind of language these days, but in those days a king
or a wealthy man, have a family ring, and on the family ring
he would have a family crest, and if he made a seal, put something
in an envelope, put something in a box, melt a little wax on
there, and while the wax is still damp, this is the image of the family
right there. That's what he's talking about. Who's that talking
about? The very word For that signet
image is what's used in Hebrews chapter 1, where it says, if
our Lord Jesus Christ, he is the express image of his person. He's the one who is Jehovah's
signet, his seal, staffing all his work. He is Jehovah's chosen
one, the one who builds his house. Look in Zechariah chapter 4,
just a minute I'll read, verse 6. Then he answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith
the Lord. Who art thou, O great mountain,
before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain, and
he shall bring forth the headstone thereof, with shouting cries,
Grace, grace, unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came to me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house, and his hands shall also finish it, and thou
shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me to you." And then,