Speak to Zerubbabel, &c.— See this passage explained in the note on Haggai 2:6, &c.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Having set themselves heartily to their work, God encourages them by a second message, about a month after the former, to proceed in the building. Some, probably who had seen the former temple, which had been destroyed about seventy years, beheld with grief the present structure, so little comparable to that for magnificence; and perhaps discouraged the hearts of the builders, suggesting what an insignificant house this would be; but God bid the prophet say, Be strong, O Zerubbabel and Joshua, and all ye people of the land, and work, nor be disheartened at any obstacles. And he suggests, for this purpose, the most reviving grounds of encouragement.
1. God will be with them with his special presence, and the comforts of his Spirit, according to his covenant when he brought them out of Egypt, and took them for a peculiar nation to preserve his name: therefore they need not fear, success should crown their labours. The Spirit of Jehovah, the Spirit of wisdom and might, should be their guide, their stay and consolation; and if he be with us, then shall we be strong.
2. In this temple shall the Messiah incarnate appear, and give it far greater glory than ever Solomon's temple could boast of: Yet once, it is a little while before this shall come to pass; for though the coming of Christ was distant five hundred years, it was a little while in God's sight, or compared with the time since the first promise had been given; and yet once may have reference to God's appearance on Sinai, when he revealed himself in such tremendous majesty, shaking the heavens and the earth, as now should again be done. Before the coming of Christ, the nations and all their rulers had been shaken in pieces as by an earthquake, through the prevalence of the Roman arms; and when Christ appeared, his Gospel made a shaking among the nations, awakening the consciences of men, and changing their natures; destroying and silencing the oracles of the heathen, and abolishing all the ceremonial institutions, Hebrews 12:27. And the desire of all nations shall come; He, whose salvation is to extend to all nations, the desirable object which every miserable sinner so greatly needs, and whom all should long for as their only hope and refuge; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord, by the presence of the incarnate Jehovah, which should far exceed in glory the Shechinah of old. It is true they might say, that their treasures were utterly insufficient to adorn the temple, as it had been overlaid by Solomon with gold; but God anticipates the objection. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, these were his own before Solomon bestowed them on his building; and he could, if he had pleased, have given them enough to have done so likewise; but his glory was not by these exalted. Far greater should be the glory of this latter house than of the former; though neither ark, nor shechinah, nor urim and thummim, nor celestial fire was there; the fulness of the Godhead bodily resident in Jesus should far surpass all these; and the miracles that he wrought, and the Gospel that he declared, exalted the latter house far above the former: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts; not temporal peace, for under the second temple the Jews enjoyed little of that, but spiritual peace, which Jesus the Prince of Peace came to purchase, preach, and communicate to all his believing people.
2nd, The discourse contained in the 10th and following verses is designed,
1. To humble them under a sense of their pollution and sinfulness; and in order hereunto the prophet is sent to inquire of the priests, not so much for his information, as their conviction. He puts two questions to them concerning the law, of which they were the expounders, [1.] Whether a person carrying holy flesh in his garment, sanctified by the touch of it any common meat? to which they answered, No; for though the garment must be washed before it could be employed in common uses, Leviticus 6:27 yet it communicated no virtue to what it touched. [2.] Whether, if a person unclean touched any of these, it should be unclean? they said, It shall be unclean, Numbers 19:22 so much more easily is pollution communicated than purity. Then answered Haggai, applying the case to the priests and people, So is this nation before me, saith the Lord; their ritual devotions and services, like the garment carrying holy flesh, could not sanctify; while their hearts being unclean, every thing they touched received defilement; and especially, as seems to be the intention of the prophet to shew, was this the case with them while they neglected the building of God's house; and this they are called upon to consider, and lay to heart, that, in their reflections on the past, they might lie low before God, from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord; from that day, when they left off the work about seventeen years before, they had been under the constant marks of God's displeasure, the sure proof of their sins. Their harvest had failed their expectations; the heap of corn which should have yielded twenty measures, when it came to be threshed gave but ten; and when from the quantity of grapes that he put into the press, the vine-dresser hoped to draw out fifty measures, there were but twenty. Blasting, mildew, and hail, destroyed the fruits of the earth; yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord, continued unhumbled under those providences, and resumed not the work of the sanctuary: all which they should remember, and humble their souls before the Lord.
2. To encourage them, he bids them observe, from the day forward that they began to turn to God, and set themselves heartily to his neglected service, what a blessed alteration would appear. Is the seed yet in the barn? No: they had just sown it, and it was not yet come up, and uncertain what harvest it would produce; their fruit-trees, it being winter, were now bare; but, saith God, from this day will I bless you with plenty of all good things, and to their full conviction demonstrate how much they consulted even their own advantage in returning to his work and service. Note; They who faithfully apply themselves to God's work shall assuredly find his blessing, sometimes in providential gifts of this world's goods, but always in the comfort that he will bestow upon their souls.
3rdly, The same day in which Haggai had delivered the above mentioned message to the people in general, he is sent to Zerubbabel in particular, with encouragement to him under the difficulties of his office, and the dangers to which he saw himself and the nation exposed from their weakness and the powerful nations around them.
1. He may expect to see strange revolutions, like the shakings of heaven and earth. The throne of kingdoms, the Persian monarchy, would be overthrown, and the kingdoms of the heathen be destroyed, with their chariots and horsemen, every one by the sword of his brother; which may include the successive monarchies, the Grecian and Roman, and be extended to all the enemies of Christ's church and people to the end of time.
2. Zerubbabel shall be protected and defended in the midst of these commotions; or rather the promise respects his glorious descendant the Messiah, of whom he was the figure. He is emphatically the servant of the Lord, raised up to do his pleasure. I will make thee as a signet, for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of Hosts; he is the elect of God, in whom his soul delighteth, precious as a signet, and intrusted with all power in heaven and in earth. See the note on Haggai 2:6, &c.